stayingthecourse

2011-04-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

Friends,

After a couple good years at blogging, and a couple lean years, I'm hanging it up for a while. As I'm sure you've noticed, I can't keep posting and doing the other parts of my life that I'm committed to. There's a season to everything. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg Lamm
www.2ndstreet.org

2010-07-05T10:32:00.001-07:00

HAVING A HARD CONVERSATION ...

Fitting together the many different pieces of how to have a hard conversation can be a challenge. Here's what I'd suggest ...

FIRST, begin by praying through GALATIANS 5:22-23 and ask God to pour the fruit of His Holy Spirit through you to the person you are sharing with. It's Christ in you that will make a difference, not any explanations or counter-arguments you may be able to articulate.

SECOND, ask God to help you understand how He wants to see each of the individual fruits of His Spirit come through in what the the person you're talking with sees, hears, and senses during your time together.

THIRD, don't underestimate the other person's ability to "sense" in the Holy Spirit the subtext of what you're say to them. During times of pain, our emotions are heightened, but often so is our level of discernment.

FOURTH, be as honest about your sin (or whatever kind of brokenness you're experiencing with the person you're talking with) as you are about your love for the other person, and about your desire to make things right. Pledging your love without uncovering your sin will no doubt ring hollow to their hurting hearts. Love best abounds in the midst of transparency, and forgiveness can neither be asked for or granted without repentance.

FIFTH, if you're a parent talking with a child about a way that you have disappointed them, let them down, or wounded them, remember that fear of abandonment takes everything else out of focus. It can be very hard for kids to see and accept the "sinful humanity" of their parents. So be prepared for this pain and fear to come through as anger, and accept it.

In the end love is what will win out. The people we're seeking to reconcile with need to both hear, and see our love ... not only today and during this week with them, but in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Remember to read, meditate on and pray through GALATIANS 5:22-23. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2010-07-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

THE TORN CURTAIN ...
GOD REACHING OUT, US REACHING IN

And in EPHESIANS 2:14 Paul alludes to something that happened immediately after Jesus Christ’s death on the cross that symbolized the removal of this wall between us and God … the tearing of the veil in the Temple in Jerusalem.

EPHESIANS 2:14 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,

We read in SECOND CHRONICLES that Solomon built the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem between 832-825 B.C. and that it was 30 cubits high. A cubit was the distance between the tip of your middle finger and the middle of the inside of your elbow, and could range from 17-22 inches. So the original Temple was somewhere between 42.5 feet and 55 feet high. But then, according to Josephus, the 1st-Century Jewish historian, during Jesus’ lifetime, King Herod increased the height of the Temple to 40 cubits … making it somewhere between 56 and 73 feet high.

The Temple veil was a massive curtain that separated the Holy Place, from the Holy of Holies inside the Temple. The Holy of Holies was the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence … and where the Ark of the Covenant resided. Only once a year was the High Priest allowed to pass to the other side of this veil, enter into God’s presence, and make sacrifices to God for the forgiveness for the sins of the Jews.

Here’s how what The Gospel of Matthew tell us about the tearing of the Temple veil immediately following Jesus’ death on the cross …

MATTHEW 27:50-51 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

50-51 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

EXODUS 26:31-34 tells us that this thick Temple veil was made out of blue, purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen. Josephus tells us that the veil was four inches thick and that horses tied to each side couldn’t pull the veil apart.

What significance does the torn Temple veil have for us today? Above all, the tearing of the Temple veil at the moment of Jesus' death symbolizes that His sacrifice, the shedding of His blood, was a sufficient payment for the sins of the world … and it illustrates loud and clear to us that after Jesus’ death, the way into the Holy of Holies was opened up for all people, for all time, both Jew and Gentile. When Jesus died, the Temple veil was torn, and God moved out of the Temple.

In fact, ACTS 17:24 says that God will never again live in a Temple made with human hands, but that God will now live inside of His people through the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit. The old covenant was fulfilled, and the new covenant started.

And gang, the Temple veil is also symbolic of the fact that Jesus Christ Himself is the only way to come into relationship and fellowship with God the Father (cf., JOHN 14:6). Because, remember, before the cross, the Jewish High Priest had to enter the Holy of Holies through the veil. But now, as we’re taught in HEBREWS 10:19-20, Jesus Christ is our superior High Priest, and as His followers, you and I can now enter the Holy of Holies through Him.

HEBREWS 10:19-20 (NEW CENTURY VERSION)

19-20 So, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place without fear because of the blood of Jesus’ death. We can enter through a new and living way that Jesus opened for us. It leads through the curtain — Jesus Christ’s very body.

I love what 19th-Century British pastor, teacher, professor and author, Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote about this beautiful and wonderful truth …

“It is not a slight tear through which we may just see a little; but it is torn from the top to the bottom. There is an entrance made for the greatest sinners. If there had only been a small hole cut through it, the lesser offenders might have crept through; but what an act of abounding mercy is this, that the veil is torn down the midst, and torn from top to bottom, so that the chief of sinners may find ample passage to God!” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon | 1834-1892]

Oh, praise the LORD for our access to God! Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2010-06-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

ROMANS 7:15-25

Okay, we’re finally here in ROMANS 7. All the things we’ve said already have set us up for what Paul teaches here. If we hadn’t looked at what we did, then this passage wouldn’t have made much sense, but having looked at what we did, it should make a lot of sense.

Now remember, Paul’s talking about a time in his life when he was in relationship with God (POSITIONAL TRUTH), but his fellowship with God had been severed (TEMPORAL = TRUTH), because of unconfessed, unforgiven sins. So we see Paul here, in the midst of a struggle: Being a carnal (worldly, fleshly, stubborn-towards-God) Christian, but at the same time wanting desperately to get back into fellowship with God.

There are three different Greek words translated “do” in this passage and to help clarify their full meaning, I’ll just refer to them throughout the verses below as 1, 2, 3. Here’s what these three words mean …

1. The FIRST Greek word translated “do” is “katergazomai” and it means, “something on the inside that is working its way to the outside.”

2. The SECOND Greek word translated “do” is “prasso” and it means, “to practice as a way of life.”

3. The THIRD Greek word translated “do” is “poieo” and it means, “to do, or to commit.”

So Paul’s in RELATIONSHIP with God, but he’s out of FELLOWSHIP with God. And because of this, He’s having a very hard time understanding himself … his motives, his thoughts, his actions, they’re all jumbled and confusing to him. And so he’s saying “Man, there are things going on inside of me, and there are things coming out of me, thoughts, words, and actions, that I can’t explain.”

Ever been there? Ever found yourself wanting to do certain things, and saying, “Hey, wait a minute, I thought I was born again. What is this? I’m a new creation in Christ, how come this is happening to me?” Remember to keep these three different meanings of the word “do” in mind as we go through these verses …

ROMANS 7:15-25 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

15 I do (3) not understand what I do (1). For what I want to do (2) I do (3) not do (2), but what I hate I do (3).

I’m committing actions, and saying words, and thinking thoughts that I don’t understand and all of it’s working its way from the inside of me to the outside. I want to practice the spiritual life with Jesus Christ as a way of life, but because I’m not in control of who I am and what I do, I just can’t get it right. That wrong part of me on the inside seems more powerful than the right part of me, and I end up hating what I do most of the time.

16 And if I do (3) what I do (3) not want to do (3), I agree that the law is good.

If I commit what I commit, even though what I commit is also what I hate, then God’s Law gets the last word. The Law is for sinners and for carnal (worldly) Christians. As a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ, I don’t have to live up to the Law, or have it feel like a noose around my neck. But it’s always there, reminding me of how far I have to go, and how high I have to reach.

17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do (1) it, but it is sin living in me.

My sin nature is in control of me, and it almost always gets the best of me – getting the last word about who I see myself as, and what I do … but I don’t have to submit to it or let it have total dominion over me … I always have the choice to turn back to God, surrender to Him, live a life of confession, repentance, and restoration with Him. My sin nature doesn’t have to ultimately define me.

18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do (1) what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

I know I want to do good, to live a life of righteousness … but I struggle with letting my desires become realities. I know that righteousness is also inside of me, not just my sin nature … and I want to let righteousness become more powerful than my sin nature.

19 For what I do (3) is not the good I want to do (3); no, the evil I do (3) not want to do (2) – this I keep on doing (2).

It seems like I’m committing evil deeds, having evil thoughts, and speaking evil words continually, but I don’t want to keep living this way. I know that I can’t yield to God and His plans for my life without increasing in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom … and having these building blocks become foundational parts of my life. Without these critical building-block pieces of my God-life in place I am miserable, and consistently upset at God, and out of sync with myself and with others. I want seeking God, finding God, knowing God, and serving God, loving God and glorifying God to become my natural way of life.

20 Now if I do (3) what I do not want to do (3), it is no longer I who do (2) it, but it is sin living in me that does (1) it.

When I’m out of fellowship with God, my sin nature is in control and I commit all kinds of sins, big and small, visible and invisible, public and private, immensely costly and barely costly. I don’t want this to keeping having this be the description of my life. I want to have a new inside motivation to live for God.

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do (3) good, evil is right there with me.

My sin nature will always be with me … but it’s up to me about who is in control, my sin nature, or the Holy Spirit. The one I feed will be the one that grows strong and remains in charge. And I release more control of my life to God by growing in my knowledge of God and of God’s Word.

22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law;

God, thank You for this glimmer of hope, of what is possible when my spirit and my soul get in line with Your Holy Spirit and Your Word.

23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

I need to keep my eyes wide open to what is happening with my inward man and with my outward man. My mind is the battlefield where this war for righteousness rages. God, I long for Your knowledge, Your understanding, and Your wisdom to become greater and more consistent parts of my life.

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

This is the war I feel when I am choosing to be a carnal Christian, a worldly Christian, a Christian with a divided heart and a divided mind – when I want to live in this world and also enjoy the benefits of being an intimate follower of Jesus Christ. I can’t have it both ways. I want out of this rat race! I want to get down off the fence and run home to You.

25 Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

I will know the truth, and the truth will set me free! (cf., JOHN 8:32). Knowledge of, understanding of, and wisdom about God and His ways will be the key that unlocks my bondage to my flesh, my sin nature, my old man.

v. 20 is the key. If you’re out of fellowship with the Lord, because of unconfessed sin in your life, then you’re under the control of your sin nature. You’re not telling it what to do, it’s telling you what to do. Friends, when you’re in fellowship with God, you’re able to tell the flesh, your sin nature, your old man, what to do; and it becomes your slave.

But when you’re out of fellowship with God the flesh becomes the master and you become the slave. And can a slave tell a master what to do? NO way! So when you’re out of fellowship with God you can’t have victory over your sin nature because it’s your master. But when you’re in fellowship with God you have authority over the flesh and can bring it into submission to God’s will and purposes for your life. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg
www.2ndstreet.org

2010-03-31T09:40:00.000-07:00

DISCERNMENT AND COURAGE

Not all change is rooted in fear or disobedience, just as not all change is rooted in discernment and courage. And this is where the power of God speaking through a group becomes so critical.

When there is division over what God's revealed will is, the clearest evidence of which way to move lies in which direction best evidences the planting, the growth, and the harvesting of fruit of the Spirit (cf., GALATIANS 5:22-23). And when divergent opinions represent the fruit of the Spirit equally, then rejoice! For then God is often sharing His desire with us that we are free to happily choose any one of the options before us, instead of believing that one option is more right than the others.

God's will isn't a tight-rope to be walked. It is a way of life to be sought and followed. And when we have a single-hearted devotion to Jesus Christ, and when seeking, finding, and following God's will is our highest aim, goal, and desire, the pathway of God's will is very often wide, not narrow ... as He gives us numerous options, all of which would be good, pleasing, and perfect, and must not be seen as competing with or divergent from one another.

And just as the role of the fruit of the Spirit is critical in identifying God's will for a group, it is also vital that the sweetness and the aroma of the fruit of the Spirit be present as we live and work with one another in all the various avenues of life and ministry we travel.

GALATIANS 5:22-23
(NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

22-23 And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When everyone within a group is seeking God's will, the unity of the Spirit will come through the seeking of the fruit of the Spirit, and not just through the majority. This is why prophetic words are important, but are only one of the specific ways God speaks to us and leads us. By prophetic, I don't mean "predicting the future", but rather "calling us back to the voice of God's Spirit through God's Word".

We must trust the words God brings to us from those we know and love as single-hearted Jesus-lovers ... and we must also trust the words God brings to us from those who speak gently, maybe even with very few words. We must trust the "Jesus voice" and the "Jesus-leading" in one another.

May you seek, find, and live into the unity that finds its source in God's Spirit, and it's expression in the fruit of God's Spirit. Godspeed

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2010-03-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

WAKING UP AND LOOKING FORWARD ...

I want to tell you about a passage of God’s WORD that really nailed me a couple days ago – and that God has been using to encourage me to look into my own life and into the life of our flock. And through this passage God has been helping me be more honest about what I’m seeing in terms of where I’m at and where we’re at as a church when it comes to inviting God to develop in us the character of Jesus Christ.

In EXODUS 35-38 I read a description of the type of people God chose to build the Tabernacle – which was the portable Temple the Israelite's made and carried around the wilderness during the forty years in between when they left the slavery of Egypt and entered the promised land … the land that is now the nation of Israel.

And as I read about the characteristics God was looking for 3,500+ years ago in those who called themselves “His people”, I realized that God is still looking for the same kind of people to partner with Him in what He’s up to in the world today. So read and listen to how this passage describes the CHARACTER and the PERSPECTIVE of the type of people God chose to build the Tabernacle and it’s contents, and the kind of people He’s still looking for to get His work done in the world …

EXODUS 35:30-31 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

30 Then Moses said to the sons of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
31 “And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all craftsmanship;

God WAS and IS looking for people who are surrendered to Him and filled with the Holy Spirit … and people growing in the three things we’ve heard Solomon call us to in our study of PROVERBS … knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Do you see it?

Because only when these first four things are in place … can the fifth thing happen. And the first four have to do with our HEARTS AND MINDS, and the fifth has to do with our SKILLS AND ABILITIES. Here’s where we need to be for God to use us …

When we’re surrendered to and filled with the Holy Spirit …
When we’re increasing in our knowledge of God’s WORD …
When we’re deepening in our understanding of God’s calling to us …
When we’re wisely living out the truths of God’s Word that we’ve gained knowledge of and understanding about … and then …
Then and only then does God finally mention the importance of our skill-set … or more specifically at the end of v. 31 that He needed someone with craftsmanship.

And I see our FIRST FAITH LESSON this morning in this progression of truth …

FAITH LESSON …

God cares about our HEARTS AND MINDS FIRST, and about our SKILLS AND ABILITIES SECOND. But it’s usually easier to give our SKILLS AND ABILITIES to God first, and keep our HEARTS AND MINDS to ourselves, than it is the other way around.

But once we give God our HEARTS AND MINDS, then God can begin using our SKILLS AND ABILITIES for His purposes. And ultimately, that’s what will bring us to a place of joy and contentment.

As I’ve told you before, God is more concerned about our FAITHFULNESS than about our QUALIFICATIONS. And it’s so easy to get this backwards. But the truth about

God’s priorities, and what He’s looking for in the people who follow Him, and who He can use in this life to accomplish His plans, continues to open up in EXODUS 36 …

EXODUS 36:1-2 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

1 Now Bezalel and Oholiab, and every skillful person in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall perform in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”
2 Then Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful person in whom the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him, to come to the work to perform it.

God has given each of us skills, and when we surrender our hearts to Him and pursue His knowledge … and then when we surrender our minds to Him and pursue His understanding, then we’ll be equipped to live out His wisdom. And in that place of surrender our hearts will be stirred to give all that we are, and all that we do over to God’s purposes, and to the maturing of our life of faith with God.

And I believe that this is the posture, the perspective, and the attitude God wants you and me as His followers to have as we dig into what He has to say to us about moving past slothfulness and redeeming the time we’ve been given here on this earth.

Let’s be surrendered to and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
Let’s increase in our knowledge of God’s WORD.
Let’s go deeper in our understanding of God’s plans for us.
Let’s be committed to wisely putting into practice and living out the truths of God’s Word that we’ve gained knowledge of and understanding about … and …
Let’s give God our skill-set, and invite Him to stir us up to live out His plans in new ways … full of energy, joy, purpose, and vision.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2010-03-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

IF THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, WHY
AM I TRYING TO HOLD ONTO EVERYTHING?

[I haven't posted much for several months because of
formatting challenges with this blog site. But I've finally
figured out what I was doing wrong ... ya, it was me, not
the site ... and so now I'll begin posting more regularly.]

PSALM 24:1 (NEW CENTURY VERSION)

1 The earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it – the world and all its people.

Do you see what David’s saying here? It’s not complicated, or rocket science. But to believe and accept the truth of David’s words takes SURRENDER, SACRIFICE, TRUST, and FAITH. Four things that can be hard for you and me to have – especially when we’re going through hard times financially, and when we’re struggling to learn the life-important lessons God has for us in these four areas …

• SURRENDER
God gets to tell us how to live life.
Am I listening to God?

• SACRIFICE
God gets to tell me what to hang on to and what to let go of in this life.
Am I obeying God?

• TRUST
God alone can keep me afloat in this life.
Am I chiefly depending on and trusting in God, on myself, or on someone else?

• FAITH
God is reaching out to me, and inviting me to reach out to Him.
Who or what am I holding onto and putting my faith into?

But since we’re not going to spend several months on this topic, and now that we’ve started by looking at David’s foundational truth about WISDOM AND FINANCES found in PSALM 24:1, we’re going to look into some of Jesus Christ’s teachings on finances found in MATTHEW 6, and then we’ll look at three of Solomon’s primary financial principles found in PROVERBS, and consider their application in our lives.

18th-Century British pastor, teacher, evangelist, and author John Wesley enjoyed the security of wealth largely because he wrote theological pamphlets and sold them for a penny each. And in a sermon entitled The Danger of Riches, Wesley offers us three great ideas that set the stage for the rest of what we’ll look at together this morning.

“I EARN all I can, without hurting either soul or body. I SAVE all I can, not willingly wasting anything. And I GIVE all I can, so I am effectually secured from laying up treasures on earth.”

Do you see Wesley’s priorities? EARN, SAVE, GIVE, and then SPEND. Turn with me in your Bibles to MATTHEW 6 and we’ll begin with vv. 19-21.

MATTHEW 6:19-21 (ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION)

19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where is your treasure? Are the things you value the most measurable on Excel spreadsheets, calculators, or on stock market charts? Or is what you value and treasure most, the character of Jesus Christ that God longs to see growing in you, and the priorities of the Kingdom of Heaven God longs to see being lived out of you? Like Jesus says here, there’s danger in storing up treasures on this earth. Jesus continues with this important teaching in vv. 22-24 …

MATTHEW 6:22-24 (ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION)

22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

None of us can serve God and money. We have to choose. And this is where we have to make up our minds about the irrefutable truth of David’s words in PSALM 24:1 … The earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it – the world and all its people.

Do we believe that everything belongs to God … that all that we are, and all that we have is God’s and not ours? Or do we believe that we have what we have because we’ve worked hard for it, because we deserve it, and that if we live our lives with OPEN HANDS everything will slip through our fingers and we’ll be left destitute? Or do we believe that when we live life with OPEN HANDS before God and others that we’ll be able to serve God, AND also be able trust God’s provision for us? Jesus goes on in vv. 25-27 …

MATTHEW 6:25-27 (ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION)

25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

You and I will always depend most on where ever our identity is most deeply rooted. When our IDENTITY is most deeply rooted in Jesus Christ, then He is Who we’ll most depend on. But when our identity is most deeply rooted in ourselves and in what we can accomplish, instead of being rooted in Jesus … then anxiety, depression, jealousy, bondage, comparing, and striving will always be front and center in our lives. Jesus goes on in vv. 28-31 …

MATTHEW 6:28-31 (ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION)

28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”

Are you willing to let God take you out of anxiety, depression, jealousy, discontentment, bondage, comparing, and striving … and into His peace, centeredness, freedom, and joy? Is this what you’re longing for? Then build your identity in Jesus Christ and in the truth of King David’s words in PSALM 24:1 …

1 The earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it – the world and all its people.

Jesus wraps up this teaching in vv. 32-34 …

MATTHEW 6:32-34 (ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION)

32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Do you see the promises God makes to us when we build our lives on His priorities and root our identity in Him? Acceptance of these teachings will equip us to begin living our lives in such a way that we’ll become a WITNESS and a BLESSING to those following us, and point others to the truth of Who God is and to His plans for us.

PSALM 24:1 (NEW CENTURY VERSION)

1 The earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it – the world and all its people.

Here are three of the most important principles about WISDOM AND FINANCES that I’ve run into over and over again while reading and studying Solomon’s PROVERBS …

1. GIVE TO GOD FIRST … GOD EXPECTS US TO GIVE TO HIM FIRST … AND NOT OUT OF WHAT’S LEFT OVER AFTER WE’VE DONE WHAT WE WANT TO WITH OUR MONEY EACH MONTH.

2. LIVE WITH OPEN HANDS … WHEN WE GIVE FREELY TO GOD AND TO OTHERS, OUR NEEDS WILL BE MET.

3. CONSISTENCY AND FAITHFULNESS MATTER … REMEMBER THAT THE TORTOISE WON THE RACE, NOT THE RABBIT.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-12-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS SONG
words and music by Dave Matthews

She was his girl; he was her boyfriend

She be his wife; make him her husband

A surprise on the way, any day, any day

One healthy little giggling dribbling baby boy

The wise men came three made their way

To shower him with love

While he lay in the hay

Shower him with love love love

Love love love

Love love is all around 

Not very much of his childhood was known

Kept his mother Mary worried

Always out on his own

He met another Mary for a reasonable fee, less than

Reputable as known to be

His heart was full of love love love

Love love love

Love love is all around

When Jesus Christ was nailed to the his tree

He said "oh, Daddy-o I can see how it all soon will be

I came to shed a little light on this darkening scene

Instead I fear I spill the blood of my children all around"

The blood of our children all around

The blood of our children all around

The blood of our children all around

 So the story goes, so I'm told

The people he knew were

Less than golden hearted

Gamblers and robbers 

Drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers

Like you and me

Rumors insisted he soon would be

For his deviations

Taken into custody by the authorities

Less informed than he.

Drinkers and jokers.

all soul searchers

Searching for love love love

Love love love

Love love is all around

Preparations were made For his celebration day

He said "eat this bread and think of it as me

Drink this wine and dream it will be

The blood of our children all around

The blood of our children all around"

The blood of our children all around 

Father up above, why in all this hatred do you fill Me up with love

Fill me love love love

Love love love

Love love

And the blood of our children all around
read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-12-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

TIMING IS EVERYTHING ...
SAY "YES" TO GOD AND SHOW UP

Most invitations expire. The happening is announced. You’re invited. The event happens and you either attend or you don’t attend. The party wraps up. Concerts, sporting events, even weddings, have a beginning time and an ending time.

And unless you’re holding an unused ticket for Woodstock, the invitation or the ticket probably isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Sure, you could show up late. But who knows what you’ve missed? The key after receiving the invitation is to say “yes” and show up.

Mary showed up. Like Esther in The Old Testament, Mary realized that she’d been “born for such a time as this.” Here’s what Luke’s Gospel tells us about the delivery of Mary’s invitation, Mary’s question, God’s answer and Mary’s response.

GOD'S INVITATION ...

The angel came to her and said, “Greetings! The Lord has blessed you and is with you.” But Mary was very startled by what the angel said and wondered what this greeting might mean. The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has shown you his grace. Listen! You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him ‘Jesus’. He will be great and will be called the ‘Son of the Most High.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of King David, his ancestor. He will rule over the people of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”

MARY'S QUESTION ...

Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I am a virgin?”

GOD'S ANSWER ...

The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you. For this reason the baby will be holy and will be called the ‘Son of God.’ Now Elizabeth, your relative, is also pregnant with a son, though she is very old. Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but she has been pregnant for six months. God can do anything!”

MARY'S RESPONSE ...

Mary said, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!” Then the angel went away.

This Christmas season Jesus comes to you and to me with an invitation, and like Mary, we have the opportunity to say “yes” or say “no.” “Will you let Me live inside of you, grow inside of you, and be birthed out of you in your thoughts, your words, your priorities, and your actions?” Jesus asks us.

“But the cost is too great!” “But I am too in love with myself to surrender to you.” “But what will others think?” “But I’m too old, or too far gone to turn myself over to You.”

And to each of our questions, Jesus’ answer is the same: “God can do anything. You’re not at the end of the road. You can begin again. Many others are on this same journey with me and they can testify to the beauty, the grace, the peace and the joy of surrender. Come home to me. Make your home in me. Let me become more than a story to you this Christmas. There’s no expiration date on this invitation. But timing is everything. This is your time.” Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-11-18T09:39:00.001-08:00

WOULD JESUS BE
WELCOME AT OUR CHURCH?

A woman moved to a new city and started working in a downtown office building as a janitor. One Sunday morning she visited a church that she walked by on her way to work each day.

The parking lot was filled with beautiful cars and everyone was well dressed. Almost to the sanctuary, a tall, silver haired man in a three-piece suit stepped in front of her and suspiciously asked, “Well, now where are you going?”

Pointing towards the sanctuary she said, “In there, with everybody else … to worship the Lord.” The man steered the woman over to a side door and asked in a disingenuous tone, “I want you to go home and ask Jesus if this is the church He wants you to attend.”

The woman replied, “I walk by here each morning and thought it would be a good church to visit. But now that you mention it, I didn’t really talk with Jesus about visiting your church”. And at that, the man opened the door, and motioned to the woman to exit. And so, without a chance to even enter the sanctuary, the women left.

The following morning the same man went to a downtown office building on an errand. Walking into the lobby, he saw the woman who’d tried attending his church the day before – there she was, polishing stair rails. He went over and asked, “Did you ask Jesus yet about what we talked about yesterday?” And the woman answered, “Oh, yes, I did.” “Well, what did He say?”

Without missing a beat of her polishing the rail, the woman said with a smile, “Jesus said, ‘My child, don’t feel bad. I’ve been trying to get into that church for years, and they wouldn’t let Me in either.’”

The church at Laodicea, like the church in this story, and many churches in America and around the world had become comfortable with what they had and who they’d become, even though God wasn’t.

It’s my hope that each person reading this post will invite God to use Jesus’ words from REVELATION 3:14-22 as a mirror that we hold up to ourselves, to see our motivations, to see our priorities, and to see our faith with honesty and clarity. And then, based on what we see, that we’ll make the course-corrections we need to in order to become more like the FAITHFUL church at Philadelphia (REVELATION 3:7-13), and less like the LUKEWARM church of Laodicea. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live

Gregg

2009-11-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

TEACHING GOD'S WORD

When I was in Seminary I learned to "preach" from a Nazarene Evangelist. I thought he was creative. But basically he had just one sermon, taught from different places throughout the Bible. He was an evangelist, not a pastor-teacher, what could I expect? Here's a simple distinction between PREACHING and TEACHING ...

PREACHING is done by both evangelists and pastor-teachers. It is what evangelists do all the time, and what pastor-teachers do some of the time. It is done to share the Gospel with people and invite them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. The gospel is so woven throughout Scripture that pastor-teachers can't avoid it, nor should we. At 2nd Street I invite people to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ on Sunday mornings on a regular basis. But I am gifted and called as a pastor-teacher not an evangelist.

TEACHING is done primarily by pastor-teachers. And it is done to grow and mature the flock in their relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I do at 2nd Street on Sunday mornings, 40+ times a year. I believe that the teaching of God's WORD is most effectively done verse-by-verse through individual books of the Bible, using other passages from the Bible as support.

When I showed up in Klamath Falls in 1984, fresh out of seminary, it didn't take long for me that while I'd learned to preach in seminary, I hadn't learned to teach. Bummer. Because since I wasn't spiritually gifted and called as an evangelist, the way I'd been taught a way to teach the Bible that didn't fit with my gifting as a pastor-teacher.

So instead of staying frustrated (which I really was for about a year), I started listening to a number of pastor-teachers on the radio. Here are the five God primarily used to help shape, change, teach, and train me in how to teach His WORD (these folks aren't all serving in these positions anymore, but they were during my time in Klamath Falls / 1984-1991).

Chuck Smith, pastor-teacher at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, CA
Burt Smith, pastor-teacher at Little County Church in Redding, CA
Jon Courson, pastor-teacher at Applegate Christian Fellowship outside of Jacksonville, OR)
Kay Arthur, Bible teacher, founder of Precept Ministries
Bob Yandian, pastor-teacher at Grace Fellowship in Tulsa, OK

These five pastor-teachers all taught God's WORD verse-by-verse, and I loved it. I saw that when using this method of teaching, it was easier to allow the Holy Spirit make the outline of the teaching, and that the application flowed out of the verses along the way, instead of being pasted onto the end of the teaching like a postscript.

So learning from these five pastor-teachers (none of whom I'd ever met ... but I eventually met Kay, Burt, Bob, and Jon's brother Jimmy), I simply looked at the end result of what they taught and worked my way backwards, developing my own methods of study, preparation, and delivery of God's WORD.

I study on Tuesday afternoons, Thursday afternoons, all day Friday, Saturday morning, and then finish everything up early Sunday mornings. All told, I usually invest about 15 hours into each Sunday's teaching. But I think that it is worth it. The way I study, plan, and prepare isn't complicated. Here's a basic outline of what I do ...

Read the next passage from God's WORD that I'll be teaching from many, many, many times, out of a variety of translations. www.youversion.com helps me do this. Knowing where I am going, not just on a given Sunday, but in the coming months and even the coming year, helps out tremendously. Take notes.
Pray.
Read more of God's WORD / look up all the cross-references listed in the main Bibles I use for study (New American Standard Bible, New Century Version, The Amplified Bible, The Message, J.B. Phillips New Testament in Modern English, Contemporary English Version, and English Standard Version) along with all the other Scripture passages that the Holy Spirit brings to mind. Take notes.
Write.
Pray.
Write. Incorporating more Greek/Hebrew word studies.
Pray.
Add the Faith Lessons throughout the teaching as led by the Holy Spirit to do so. These are short, application points from individual verses, or words/themes encountered along the way.
Pray and deliver the teaching.

I hope your life with God is maturing and deepening. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-06-19T13:49:00.001-07:00

WHEN DOES GOD SHOW UP?

It's been too long since I've posted something here. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. But we'll see. Life has gotten a bit crazy, with being a husband, a dad, and a pastor. I misplaced my superman cape a while back and have been struggling with the angst (and freedom) of being a mere mortal.

Jesus Christ doesn’t wait for us to show up to worship services before He shows up. It’s not like He has His alarm clock set for 8:55 a.m. each Sunday morning … and it goes off, and then He hurries up and shows up here at 2nd Street. He’s here, waiting for us when arrive, to join Him. And as much as you may think that you’ve INITIATED this connection, this conversation, and this experience of praise and worship with Him this morning, let me break it to you … you’re wrong. God is always the INITIATOR and you and I are always the RESPONDERS.

I love how the mid-20th-century Christian mystic, Thomas R. Kelley describes this reality in his classic book, A Testament of Devotion …

In this humanistic age we suppose man
is the initiator and God is the responder.
But the Living Christ within us is the
initiator and we are the responders. God
the Lover, the Accuser, the Revealer of
Light and Darkness presses within us. ‘Behold,
I stand at the door and knock’ [God says in
REVELATION 3:20]. And all our apparent initiative
is already a response, a testimonial to His
secret presence and working within us.”
(italics added)

And in Kelley’s words, which express this mysterious front-line truth of how God works in our lives, I see an important truth ...

We do not gathered for worship, primarily because WE choose to be. Jesus Christ is always the INITIATOR, and we are always the RESPONDERS. Entering into Jesus Christ’s presence, hearing His voice, taking on His character (His thoughts, words, deeds, and priorities) and then more fully living out the will of God … this all happens because we’re RESPONDING to the loving, pursuing, wooing, INITIATION of Jesus Christ.

Let me ask you a question. Where are you seeing Jesus Christ alive and well right now? Where are you seeing His presence, His footprints, His voice, His fingerprints, and His actions? With the people you work with who are accountable to you? With the people you work with, to whom you’re accountable? In your relationships with family, with your spouse, with your children, with the people you’re dating, with your friends, or with the people you’ve felt estranged from right now but who Jesus Christ has been inviting you to begin building new bridges of relationship with? Where are you seeing Jesus Christ alive and well right now? Where are you seeing His presence, His footprints, His voice, His fingerprints, and His actions?

If you’re not seeing Jesus in these places, then you’re life with Him isn’t THE REIGNING PRIORITY of your life. Because when we make Jesus Christ our First Love (cf., REVELATION 2:4) and THE REIGNING PRIORITY of our lives, it’s like we get a new pair of glasses and we begin living life with God, not apart from God … we begin seeing His presence, His footprints, His voice, His fingerprints, and His actions everywhere … and when we look at Him and see what He’s up to, we’ll consistently see Him looking back at us, and inviting us to join Him in what He’s up to.

There are not some parts of our lives and experiences that are “spiritual” and other parts that are “not spiritual” or “natural”. All of life is most intimately and accurately defined by its “spiritual nature”. Like C.S. Lewis wrote …

“We are not natural beings who
have spiritual experiences. We are
spiritual beings who have natural experiences."

Godspeed to you as you RESPOND to the working in God in your life today.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-04-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

UNITY OR UNIFORMITY?

JOHN 13:35
(NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

By this everyone will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.

Is this what the world is seeing from you and me? I know that as followers of Jesus we’ve gotten it right some of the time. But if we’re honest, we’ll admit that Christians have also shown the world division, fighting, and backbiting. And what we’re usually divided over is what we believe.

You might believe one way about spiritual gifts, and I might believe something slightly different. You might believe one way about the Rapture of the church, and I might believe another. You might believe one way about predestination, election, and eternal security, or any number of other doctrines, and I might believe differently. You might believe one kind of worship music is the best way to come before God with your praise and adoration, and I might believe differently.

But as people who believe Jesus was right when He said in JOHN 14:6 that He’s the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes into a relationship with God the Father except through Him, God wants us to be united in love with one another. This is why we pray for other Christian churches each week – even ones that we might have some doctrinal differences with. Because what’s important is our mutual love of Jesus Christ and our willingness to follow Him.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote in EPHESIANS 4:1-6 concerning the things that followers of Jesus Christ need to be in unity with other Christians about …

EPHESIANS 4:1-6 (CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION)

… I beg you to live in a way that is worthy of the
people God has chosen to be His own. Always
be humble and gentle. Patiently put up with each
other and love each other. Try your best to let
God’s Spirit keep your hearts united. Do this by living at peace.

All of you are part of one body. There is only one Spirit
of God, just as you were given one hope when you were
chosen to be God’s people. We have only one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism. There is one God who is the Father
of all people. Not only is God above all others, but He
works by using all of us, and He lives in all of us.

Friends, these have got to be the beliefs that unify us with other followers of Jesus Christ. If you're part of the Body of Jesus Christ, then you’ve got a lot of siblings - not only here at 2nd Street, but in churches all around Newberg, Oregon, and across the face of the earth. God wants us to get along. And it’s not about cloning or becoming identical Christians … it's about harmonizing.

It was said that George Whitefield (England | 1714-1770) was such a powerful evangelist that 30,000 people would regularly attend his open-air meetings. History tell us that Whitefield was so anointed and eloquent, that many orators and actors would come just to watch him, listen to him, and try to learn from him.

Charles Wesley, a contemporary of Whitefield, also preached to multitudes. And yet the Christian doctrines these two men held were miles apart. In fact, when it came to certain doctrines (especially God’s sovereignty and mankind’s free will) they placed paid advertisements in the newspapers explaining why they believed what they did — and why the other guy was wrong. I promise that I won’t ever do. Even though The Graphic could probably use the ad-revenue!

In fact, the disagreements between Whitefield and Wesley, were so intense at times, that people must have thought they hated each other. But any question about that was finally put to rest one day when a newspaper reporter asked, “Tell me, Mr. Whitefield, do you expect to see Charles Wesley in heaven?” “No, I won’t see Charles Wesley in heaven” Whitefield answered. “Oh, he’ll be there. But he’ll be so close to the throne of Jesus Christ, and I’m going to be so far back, that there’s no way I’ll be able to see him.”

Man, I like that! Here were two pastor-teachers who held very different doctrinal views from one another, and whose ministries had very different focuses, and yet they made the choice to have unity through love in their diversity. Do you see it?

“Unity doesn’t eliminate diversity. The absence of diversity
is not unity; it is uniformity, and uniformity is dull. It is fine
when the choir sings in unison, but I prefer that they
sing in harmony.” - Warren Wiersbe, Be Hopeful, p. 53.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-02-27T14:45:00.000-08:00

PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION ....
AND/OR FREE WILL

I have a 19-year old female friend (the youngest daughter of some dear friends of mine) living in India right now. She is working with a couple who is raising the 70+ daughters of Hindu temple prostitutes in their town. I received an email from this young woman the other day asking me the following question:

Do you believe in Calvin's theory of predestination? It was presented to me here by one of the pastors and I have NO WAY of proving it wrong, but it seems SO wrong to me! If you have time and interest give me your thoughts.

Here is what I wrote back to my young friend ...

%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%

Hello friend. Calvin's doctrine of predestination, and it's twin and necessary sister, the doctrine of election, have so many varieties to it, that to ask a pastor, a theologian, a religion professor, or a Sunday School teacher to describe them would be like asking these different people to describe the best flavor in the world, or the sound of rain, or to paint a picture of what they think Jesus looked like. A whole slew of answers would come. And the funny thing is that Calvin would probably argue with all of them. And he certainly didn't believe these doctrines were theories ... for him they were iron-clad doctrines that he was willing to stake his life on.

This is a theological question that followers of Jesus Christ have talked about, argued over, been divided over, and even hated one another over for centuries. And the reason why? Because both emphases are found in God's Word.

THE DOCTRINE OF FREE WILL | God has given us a free will and that we either respond to His invitation to come into a relationship with Him or we don't (most Quakers, Methodists, many Pentecostals, and Nazarenes find their beliefs lingering on this side of the theological fence).

THE DOCTRINES OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION | God is sovereign and chooses some people ahead of time to be in relationship with Him, and chooses others to not be in relationship with Him (most Baptists, Presbyterians, Evangelical Free, and independent Bible Churches find their beliefs lingering on this side of the theological fence).

God's Word has plenty of verses that seem to speak to both sides of this theological coin that this pastor has asked you to spin (for his pleasure?). GOOGLE "free will, predestination, and election" and you'll find a curiously solid slew of Biblical answers for both. But here's the deal my friend. Why can't both be true? This is one of the things I love about Quakers. We're not afraid of paradox. We don't believe that being silenced and dumbfounded by the awesomeness and the "otherness" of God shows a lack of conviction, a lack of theological expertise, or a lack of convincement.

It's not the easy way out to sit on the fence on these two seemingly oppositional doctrines. In fact it's the height of humility, to admit that God is God and we're not. And that while we see the two sides of this theological coin spoken of throughout Scripture (in the law, in the history, in the wisdom, in the prophets, in the minor prophets, in the Gospels, and in the Epistles), we don't have to have a certainty about one being right and one being wrong in order to feel confident about our theology.

Letting both sides of this God-coin be true is just more evidence to me that there are things about God that human beings will never be able to understand in ways that solve all the doctrinal riddles that people as smart as Calvin and Wesley are able to dig out of God's Word.

But when seeking what I believe about this and other theological conundrums, a couple of the questions I always ask myself are ...

To believe this proposed doctrine before me, do I need to "unbelieve" anything I believe about the character or the nature of God, Jesus Christ, or God's Holy Spirit?
To believe this proposed doctrine before me, do I need to be talked into it by somebody who is acting smarter and wiser than me for the purpose of getting me to come over to their side of the argument?

Truth isn't confounding. It's liberating and nearly always ridiculously simple. I want to be teachable. But I don't want to be naive, nor do I want to be spiritually sucker-punched into adopting something as a belief just because it makes sense to someone who everyone else believes is "really smart." Remember, that almost all the interactions Jesus had with people who were "really smart" ... especially "really smart religious people" didn't turn out all that well for the ones with the degrees.

Calvin? Wesley? Augustine? Luther? Smart guys to be sure. Lovers of Jesus to be sure. But don't let their "convincement" feel like a noose around your faith-neck. Let Jesus and God's Word teach you, and lead you into all truth. Am I saying we don't need to let God use "teachers" in our lives, and that we don't need to adopt a Credo, or a Statement of Faith that makes sense to us, but that we can grow with? Of course not.

In fact, the book of PROVERBS says over an over again that the definition of a fool is "one who rejects instruction." But learn from people you know and trust, in whom you see the character and the nature of God alive and growing. And don't let people lure you into theological swamps just to prove something to you about themselves and their beliefs, or to get you to trust them and their cleverness.

The Apostle Paul uses the word "predestination" in his writings. My favorite time is when he says in ROMANS 8:29 that "those God foreknew He predestined to be conformed into the family-likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ." And the reason I'm drawn to this verse about predestination among all the others, is because here God's "predestination" is linked to God's "foreknowledge."

In other words, God doesn't make us choose Him or reject Him. But because God is beyond the "chronos" time that you and I as human beings are so easily trapped in (the passing of time that's measured by the ticking of the hands on a clock), and because God is fully engaged in "kronos" time, or "God-time", He sees the beginning, the middle, and the end of all human history as happening at the exact same moment. And so while God sees the decisions you and I will make, He doesn't make us make the choices we have made, are making, and will make. In other words ...

The invitation to come into the Kingdom of God is mailed to everyone who ever lived (JOHN 3:16).
But not everybody who opens the invitation up and reads it will make the choice to come to the party.

God gets this. It breaks His heart that some won't come to the party. But the party goes on ... and is going on right now. Welcome to the party.

If my words have become somewhat rambling, I am sorry. I'm tired. But know that I love you. And know that I'm glad that you are where you are, and that you're doing what Jesus has asked you to do. The center of God's will is the hot spot on the dance floor at the party. Dance on my little sister. Dance on. Good night and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-02-09T10:56:00.000-08:00

ADVICE TO CAREGIVERS

Have you been the caregiver to someone who is dying? About two years ago my wife Teresa was. Her mom Pat, a widow, was given 4-6 months to live. Teresa (the oldest of three children and the only daughter) cleared her schedule, flew to Spokane, and made a plan to be there every other week for the next 4-6 months.

But during her first week, her mom became so weak that Teresa stayed for five weeks until her mom died. Day and night she cared for her. Recently Teresa reflected back to the five weeks she spent with her mom and clarified the six main lessons she learned on the journey ...

Caring for a person you love while they are dying is the most difficult, intimate, and holy task you will ever do in your life.
Taking time to go out of the room, the house, or the hospital ... to take a walk, to drink a cup of tea or coffee, or to get some kind of exercise will make all the difference in "going the distance" as a caregiver. Doing this will help you "listen to your life" and learn the lessons you must remain open to learning while walking this difficult, and oftentimes, lonely road.
Let the people who offer to help you, actually help you. Let them clean your house, tend to your yard, take care of your pets, or do whatever else they can think to do for you while you're being a caregiver ... they want their love for you to be as tangible as the love you exhibiting as a caregiver ... so let them.
Touch and spoken words are beautiful things. Acts of love and kindness are a bridge that can bond two people together. But touch and the words we speak are two other important bridges. Don't buy into the doubts you might have that your loved one is unaware of your touch and/or unable to hear and find comfort in the words you speak to them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If the monitor/s in your loved one's room are a distraction to you being able to focus on them, ask the nurse to turn them away from your view. This will let you center your attention more directly onto your loved one instead of on the monitors.
Prayer is simply talking with God. Let your prayers out in conversation with God, instead of holding them in. Prayers can be spoken with actual words, or just said silently. God can handle the pain, the anger, the denial, the fears, and the questions that will no doubt all be part of your prayers. And in return, God will give you a peace and comfort that can come from nowhere else. God's presence and God's voice are gifts we all need -- especially while being a caregiver.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7
(THE MESSAGE / A MODERN-DAY PARAPHRASE
OF THE BIBLE BY EUGENE PETERSON)

6 Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying,
pray. Let petitions and praises shape your
worries into prayers, letting God know
your concerns.

7 Before you know it, a sense of God's whole-
ness, everything coming together for good,
will come and settle you down. It's wonderful
what happens when Christ displaces worry at
the center of your life.

The days and nights of a caregiver are sacred. Give God your cares, because God cares for you. Do not be afraid little ones. You are not alone.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2009-01-12T21:55:00.000-08:00

TRANSFORMED?

As the pastor and teacher of 2nd Street Community Church, it’s my prayer that whenever we gather together here on Sundays, and when we get together in ministry teams, or in community groups, that we will always allow God to use our times of worship, study, fellowship and service, to train our hearts and our minds to come to the place where we’re more surrendered to Him, and more willing to pray for, and come alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in the world whose faith is causing them undeniable persecution … even persecution that ends in death. And I see a FAITH LESSON for us here …

FAITH LESSON …

The life Jesus Christ calls us to as His
followers is a “CHANGED LIFE” … it’s a life
of “TRANSFORMATION.” And it’s a life, that
even in North America should be seen as
“DIFFERENT” and “COUNTER-CULTURAL”
and that should, if we’re living it out the
way God calls us to, will have us swimming
“UPSTREAM AGAINST THE VALUES AND
PRIORITIES OF POPULAR CULTURE.”

When I was first became a follower of Jesus Christ in 1978 I knew that Jesus was changing my life, but frankly, I didn’t want to have to become all that different from the way I was before I came into a relationship with Him.

I wanted TO ADD SOME JESUS into the mix of who I was; but I wasn’t all that interested in “TOTAL TRANSFORMATION.” I didn’t want to lose any of my friends who weren’t yet following Jesus Christ. I still got drunk pretty regularly, and I still smoked a lot of weed with my buddies. I still liked going to profane movies. I basically acted the same way as before I was a Christian. And nobody ever really hassled me about becoming a Christian because it was just kind of A PRIVATE CONTRACT that I’d made with Jesus.

I mean my friends knew that I was going to church, but that was about it. God forgave my sins, and then I basically made the choice to stay the way I was before I met Him. In other words, not too much SURRENDER was happening. I was like an employee who really liked getting a paycheck, but who wasn’t all that excited about actually showing up to work and staying on task with the job they’d been hired to do.

But then one night, several months into my new life with Jesus Christ, a friend of mine who knew I’d started going to church, said to me, “Man, you’re such a cool Christian.” And God used his words like a glass of cold water thrown in my face to wake me up. And it was at about the same time, that I remember my pastor teaching through EZEKIEL 36:25-27 …

EZEKIEL 36:25-27 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.
26 And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. (emphasis added)
27 And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.

Gang, the bottom line is that God wanted to do this work of TRANSFORMATION in me (just the way He wants to do it in all of us) and I was settling for so much less than He had in mind. When we’re living life the way Jesus calls us to live, our lives, our values, and our priorities will be totally different from the values and the priorities of the world – and that because of that, Jesus says here that there will even be some people won’t like us. And this message from Jesus started to soak in.

And it wasn’t very long after that night when I stopped trying to convince people that I was the same person … but just with a little bit of Jesus added … because I wasn’t the same person! Jesus was changing me from the inside out. Here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote about this to his friends in the city of Corinth.

SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:17 (ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When we make the choice to SURRENDER to Jesus Christ and begin to live the life He calls us to live, He’ll be pleased, but not everybody else in our lives might be. And within a few weeks of making that choice to allow Jesus Christ to tell me about how to live, many of my “FRIENDS” walked away from me.

But that was okay, because the One who didn’t walk away from me was Jesus Christ. He stuck closer to me than a brother. He never turned His back on me. He never gave up on me. Here’s how Jesus talked about this truth in The Gospel of Luke … and how the Apostle Paul talked about it with his friend Timothy …

LUKE 6:26a (GOOD NEWS TRANSLATION)
SECOND TIMOTHY 3:12 (GOOD NEWS TRANSLATION)

26a How terrible when people only speak well of you.
12 Everyone who wants to live a godly life in union with Christ Jesus will be persecuted;

Notice, that Jesus and Paul didn’t say that people who follow Him “might” experience persecution. He said that after we make the choice to SURRENDER our lives to Him, that IF WE’RE NOT EXPERIENCING a new kind of rub and conflict with the world because of our choice to be connected to Him, then we’d better go back to square one and ask ourselves if we’ve really chosen Him above everything else, if we’ve invited Him to be the LORD and Master of our lives, and if we’ve really SURRENDERED to His desire to teach us a whole new way to be human. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-12-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS 2008
A QUESTION ASKED ... AND A QUESTION ANSWERED

Years ago I heard a description of how The Old Testament and The New Testament both speak through two statements … one A QUESTION ASKED, and the other one A QUESTION ANSWERED … about the coming of Jesus Christ as our Messiah. First, A QUESTION ASKED …

The whole Old Testament can be described with the QUESTION Isaac asked his father Abraham as they walked up Mt. Moriah to offer a sacrifice of worship and forgiveness to God. And as they trekked up the mountain, Isaac asked his dad, “Where’s the lamb?” They had the wood, and they had the fire, but they didn’t have the sacrificial lamb.

All the way through The Old Testament, from the Garden of Eden until the Manger in Bethlehem, the world has asked this same QUESTION, “Where’s the lamb?” Wanting to find our way back home to God, every human being ever born knows deep down inside that there’s no way we can get back home to God on our own. The lamb of God needs to be sacrificed to open the door up for us to have a restored relationship for forgiveness, grace and peace with God.

So that’s the QUESTION that defines life before the Jesus Christ, the Messiah came into the world … “Where’s the lamb?” But what about after Jesus Christ showed up? Well that’s here the QUESTION ANSWERED comes into play.

When Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist baptized Him in the Jordan River, God the Father spoke out of heaven and ANSWERED THE QUESTION, by saying, “Behold The Lamb.” In other words God was saying, “You’ve been waiting for the Lamb of God. Well here He is. He’s My Son, and by following Him, obeying Him, and surrendering to Him, you’ll have the opportunity to see everything change in your lives. Old things will become new and you’ll become a new creation. My Son’s sacrificial death will bring you life, and make a way for you to come back into relationship with Me.”

In The Old Testament
A QUESTION ASKED
“Where’s the lamb?”

In The New Testament
A QUESTION ANSWERED
“Behold the Lamb!"

Merry Christmas ... and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-12-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

THE LOVE OF THE FATHER

Many years ago, there was a wealthy widower who, with his only child, a devoted young son, shared a passion for art collecting. Together they traveled the world, adding only the finest art treasures to their collection. Priceless works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others adorned the walls of the family estate.

The man looked on with satisfaction as his son became an experienced art collector. The son's trained eye and sharp business mind caused his father to beam with pride as they dealt with art collectors worldwide. As winter approached, war engulfed the nation, and the son left home to serve his country. After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram that his beloved son had died while rushing a fellow soldier to a medic.

Distraught and lonely, the man faced the upcoming Christmas holidays with sadness. The joy of the season that he and his son had so looked forward to — would no longer visit his house. On Christmas morning, a knock on the door awakened the depressed old man.

As he walked to the door, the masterpieces on his walls only reminded him that his son was not coming home. As he opened the door, a soldier greeted him with a large, wrapped package in his hand. He introduced himself to the man by saying, “I was a friend of your son. In fact, I was the soldier he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you.”

As the two began talking, the soldier told the man how often his son spoke of their shared love of fine art. “I'm an artist,” said the soldier, “and I want to give you this.” As the old man unwrapped the package, the paper gave way to reveal a portrait of the man's son. Though the world would never consider it the work of a genius, the painting featured the young man's face in striking detail. Overcome with emotion, the man thanked the soldier, promising to hang the picture above the fireplace in his study.

A few hours later, after the soldier had departed, the old man set about his task. True to his word, the painting went above the fireplace in his study, pushing aside paintings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then the man sat in his chair and spent Christmas gazing at the wonderful gift he had been given. During the days and weeks that followed, the man discovered that even though his son was no longer with him, the boy's life would live on because he had rescued dozens of wounded soldiers before he died.

As the stories of his son's gallantry continued to reach him, fatherly pride and satisfaction began to ease the grief. The painting of his son soon became his most prized possession, far eclipsing any interest in the pieces for which museums around the world clamored. He told his neighbors it was the greatest gift he had ever received.

The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. The art world was in anticipation. With the collector's passing, and his only son dead, his paintings would be sold at an auction. According to the will of the old man, all of the art works would be auctioned on Christmas day, the day he had received his greatest gift.

The day arrived and art collectors from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world's most spectacular paintings. Dreams would be fulfilled this day; greatness would be achieved as many would add the new art to their collections. But the auction began with a painting that was not on any museum's list. It was the painting of the man's son. The auctioneer asked for an opening bid and the room fell silent. “Who will open the bidding with $100?” he asked.

Minutes passed. No one spoke. From the back of the room came, “Who cares about that painting? It's just a picture of his son. Let's forget it and go on to the good stuff.” More voices echoed in agreement. “No, we have to sell this one first,” replied the auctioneer. “Now, who will take the son?” Finally, a friend of the old man spoke. “Will you take ten dollars for the painting? That's all I have. I knew the boy, so I'd like to have it.” “I have ten dollars. Will anyone go higher?” called the auctioneer.

After more silence, the auctioneer said, “Going once, going twice. Gone.” The gavel fell. Cheers filled the room and someone exclaimed, “Now we can get on with it and we can bid on these treasures!” The auctioneer looked at the audience and announced the auction was over.

Stunned disbelief quieted the room. Someone spoke up and asked, “What do you mean it's over? We didn't come here for a picture of this man’s son! What about all of the other paintings? There are millions of dollars of art here! I demand that you explain what's going on here!” The auctioneer replied, “It's really very simple. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son … gets it all.”

And just like the people discovered at the auction, the message is the same today … God the Father’s greatest love and greatest joy came when His only Son stepped out of heaven and into the world, so that He could step into our hearts.

Jesus Christ gave His life rescuing others. And when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He paid the price for the sin of the world. The price for your sin and for my sin, and made it possible for us to come into a relationship with God.

And because of God the Father's love … whoever takes the Son, Jesus Christ, gets it all … abundant life in the here and now, and eternal life when we pass from this world. Blessed be the word of the LORD. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-12-02T20:09:00.000-08:00

JOHN 14:6 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

Jesus said to him, “I am THE way,
and THE truth, and THE life;
NO ONE comes to the Father
but through Me. [emphasis added]

I believe that heaven is a great place to look forward to. But even if heaven wasn’t a reality, the freedom from the penalty and bondage of sin and the abundant life that God brings us into when we come into a relationship with Him … just those realities alone, make surrendering our lives to God worth it.

But we’ve got to make sure we know that Jesus Christ is the only way into this restored relationship with God, because as Jesus Christ says here in JOHN 14:6, “no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

And as Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, He knew that the cross was just one day away. And when we think of the extreme suffering Jesus Christ endured in order to secure our freedom from sin’s penalty, our hearts should overflow with love for Him. Leslie Flynn who pastored one single church in Nanuet, NY for more than 40 years, told a story that illustrates this truth …

An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, died in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed up an iron drainpipe and came down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.

Many weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen each offered the judge the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as each of them talked, the boy’s eyes remained focused on the floor.

Then a stranger walked to the front of the room and slowly took his fire-scarred hands from his pockets. As the crowd gasped at the severity of his wounds, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life … the one whose hands had been burned as he climbed up the fire-hot iron drainpipe. And with a leap, the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life.

The other three men walked silently out of the room, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. The man’s scarred hands had settled the issue once and for all.

Many voices are calling for our attention. Among them is the One whose nail-pierced hands remind us that He has rescued us from sin and its deadly consequences. To Him, and to Him alone, belong our surrender, our love, and our devotion. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-11-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

THE FRONT FELL OFF

For a good laugh go to ...

www.snopes.com/photos/politics/frontfell.asp

and watch the video embedded there. I needed to laugh yesterday and this came just in the nick of time! Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-11-06T20:25:00.000-08:00

LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE

I can't believe it ... but it's almost here. Logos Software ... the Bible software long recognized by all Bible scholars, students, pastors, and laypersons alike as the best Bible software application available ... best searching, best interface, best resource tie-ins, best library add-ons, etc ... is finally almost available for Macintosh! Yippee! Check it out at ...

www.logos.com/mac

I just received an email from the Logos folks and they're now accepting pre-orders for it, and so baring the second coming, I have a feeling I know what's going to be under my Christmas tree! It's been a long time coming, and I smell the scent of 12 verbs a parsing in the wind! Good night and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-11-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

THE VINEYARD OWNER
AND HIS WORKERS
A JESUS PARABLE
MATTHEW 20:1-16

About four weeks ago now I went to a house I'd never been to before for a visit. My new friend who I hadn't met yet had been diagnosed with cancer, and had told his daughter that he was running low on hope and wanted to talk with her pastor. This is what happened between that day and now ...

Thinking and praying about what I should share with my new friend I was led to a Jesus parable found in MATTHEW 20:1-16.

And as I drove down their long driveway, I realized why this was the part of God’s WORD I’d been led to share as a way to give offer hope about life, eternity, and about being in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Here’s the Jesus story I shared that day …

vv. 1-7 – For the kingdom of Heaven is like a
farmer going out early in the morning to
hire laborers for his vineyard. He agreed
with them on a wage of a silver coin a day
and sent them to work. About nine o'clock
he went and saw some others standing about
in the market place with nothing to do. “You
go to the vineyard too,” he said to them, “and
I will pay you a fair wage.” And off they went.

At about mid-day and again at about three
o'clock in the afternoon he went and did the same
thing. Then about five o'clock he went out and
found some others standing about. “Why are you
standing about here all day doing nothing?” he asked
them. “Because no one has employed us,” they
replied. “You go off into the vineyard as well, then,” he said.

vv. 8-12 - When evening came the owner of the
vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the laborers and
pay them their wages, beginning with the last and
ending with the first.” So those who were engaged
at five o'clock came up and each man received a silver coin.

But when the first to be employed came they
reckoned they would get more, but they also received
a silver coin a man. As they took their money they
grumbled at the farmer and said, “These last fellows
have only put in one hour's work and you've treated
them exactly the same as us who have gone
through all the hard work and heat of the day!”

vv. 13-16 – But he replied to one of them, “My
friend, I'm not being unjust to you. Wasn't our
agreement for a silver coin a day? Take your
money and go home. It is my wish to give the
latecomers as much as I give you. May I not do
what I like with what belongs to me? Must you be
jealous because I am generous? So, many who
are the last now will be the first then and the first last.”

God is the vineyard owner and you and I are the laborers. And the silver coin represents the gift of the abundant life with Jesus in the here and now –the hope we have when we know Jesus, and the eternal life God gives to everyone who respond to His invitation and come into a relationship with Him.

Some people come to God early in their lives, and others later in their lives. But no matter when we come to God, it’s never too late, and God loves us just the same. On the day I visited my new friend, after reading this Jesus parable to him and talking about it, he told me that he wanted to come into a relationship with Jesus. Hope came. Three weeks later, he died at home.

I have a friend named Brennan who lives outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. Years ago Brennan sent me a story about something that had happened to a priest friend of his. And as I read Brennan’s words this past week I realized that while the story didn’t have anything to do with my new friend, that it actually had everything to do with him … and so here is the story Brennan sent me.

One day a woman named Ellie, whose family had a long-standing but seldom taken-advantage-of relationship with the Catholic church in her neighborhood came over to talk with the priest about her dad Tom … whom the doctors had just given days or weeks left to live.

After introducing herself to this priest, named Allen, Ellie said that her dad had asked her to ask him if he could come over and visit with him. Even though Allen had never met Ellie or Tom, he knew some of their extended family … and he told her that “yes, of course he could come over … and that he’d be there late that afternoon.”

And so around 4:00 p.m. Allen came over to sit with Tom … and to read Scripture with him and pray with him if he wanted him to. He’d kind of play it by ear.

When Allen arrived at the house, Ellie took him into Tom’s first-floor bedroom. She told Allen that because he was there to kind of keep an eye on her dad, that she’d run to the store, pick up a few things and be back in about 45 minutes.

Tom was about 55 years old, had Lou Gehrig’s disease and Allen could see that yes, indeed, he was very near the end of his life. Tom had been trapped in his bed for most of the past eleven months, except to get up and use the restroom. And during the past six months he hadn’t even been able to do that unassisted.

Tom was awake and looked uncomfortable. He was propped up on pillows at odd angles – trying to relive the pain of being in a bed too long. On his left side there was a little side-table with a pitcher of water, a CD player and a couple of different machines, beeping and chugging along … and on the right side of the bed sat an empty chair.

Allen walked over to the empty chair, but when he tried to sit down, Tom put out his hand to stop him, craned his neck to look out the bedroom door to see if his daughter had gone and said, “Thanks for coming over Father. If you don’t mind, can you pull up that other chair to sit on … the one over there by the desk?”

Allen didn’t know exactly why the chair next to the bed wasn’t available to him, but he obliged Tom’s request, grabbed the desk chair, pulled it up next to the bed and sat down. The room was filled with silence, but it was a peaceful silence, not an awkward one … the kind of silence that’s more relieving than irritating. Finally Tom said, “I guess you’re probably wondering about the chair?”

“Well, ya” Allen said, “I was a little curious about it.”

And then Tom told Father Allen this story …

“About 7 months ago an old childhood friend of mine named Nick came by to visit. We hadn’t seen one another for quite a few years. You know how it is … stuff just got in the way. But Nick had heard I was sick so he stopped by. I thought he would probably just visit one time, but he kept coming back … usually a couple times a week … in fact he’ll be here again Saturday.”

“One day while we were playing cards Nick asked me if I ever prayed. I told him that when we were kids I used to pray sometimes. But that mainly I’d ask God for things like that we’d have enough food to eat or that my dad would get a job … and then be able to keep a job … stuff like that. But that, no, I hadn’t prayed for a long time.

Nick told me that he hadn’t been much of a praying man either … and that in fact throughout most of his life he’d pretty much lived life as though God didn’t exist.

But then a couple of years ago his wife got sick with cancer and died … and that during that time Nick realized that when some really critical, important things in his life hadn’t turned out the way he thought they should, or hoped they would, he’d been majorly disappointed with God, and made the decision to shut God out of his life.

Then Nick went on to tell Tom that during his wife’s illness everything changed – and he came to discover God as his father and his friend, as his companion, his comforter, and his guide … and that ever since then he’d prayed quite a bit.

Tom asked Nick how he did it … how he prayed … did he bow or kneel? Did he close his eyes? Did he whisper, did he talk in a normal voice, did he yell, or did he just pray silently, with no words at all? And he said, that “yes, he prayed all those ways.”

But Nick told Tom that the way he liked to pray the most was to pull up an empty chair across from him … and then picturing Jesus sitting in the chair, he would just talk with Jesus, knee to knee.

Tom told Allen that when Nick told him the empty-chair-story he thought it was kind of strange, almost spooky … but that after Nick left, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt compelled to try it for himself. And so a few days later Tom asked Ellie to bring the chair into the room – the empty chair that now sat next to the bed.

He told her that he needed the chair to grab onto when he had to get up or change positions in bed. Then Tom told Allen that he didn’t dare tell Ellie why he really had her bring in the chair. No way. I mean she thought that her dad’s cheese had sled off his cracker a long time ago – even before he got sick – and that he didn’t need to give her any fresh ammunition to prove that her theory was right.

And then Tom said, “Father Allen, every day since Ellie brought that chair into my room, I’ve been praying 5-6 hours a day. I picture Jesus sitting in the chair and we just talk.

I can’t really sit up, across from the chair like Nick does, but I pull the chair around so that the chair seat is directly across from me and I just tell Jesus all my problems, all my frustrations, and also all the things I’m thankful for, and that I’m actually looking forward to being with Him face-to-face in heaven someday.

And then I wait and listen … and Jesus talks to me. Not with audible words, but in ways that soothe me, calm me and that make me realize that to not talk with Him … that to not listen to Him would be like not breathing. I’ve grown to love our times together. I’ve come to love Jesus. And maybe even more important than that, I’ve come to believe that Jesus loves me.

As Father Allen sat there listening to Tom, he was blessed and amazed. Tom was dying, but he was also living more fully than he had ever lived before. They talked a bit more, and Allen read to him out of some different passages in the Gospels and from the Psalms … and after about an hour, when Ellie got back from the store Allen told her and Tom that if they wanted him to … he’d be back in two days to visit again … and they assured him that they would.

The next afternoon Ellie came to the church to see Allen. She told him that when she went to give her father his breakfast that morning she found that he had died during the night. Allen was shocked that he’d been with Tom on his last day here on earth. But he also knew that Tom was ready to go home, and be with Jesus.

Allen told Ellie that he’d really enjoyed their time together the day before – that it had been an honor to meet her dad and hear him talk with him of his love for God.

He told her that if he could help with the funeral, to let him know – and that he just wanted to be there for them in whatever way they needed the most. Ellie told him that she’d be in touch the next day, and then as she turned to leave she stopped, turned back around and said, “You know, Father, it was kind of strange. This morning when I went into dad’s room he was almost halfway out of his bed.”

“You mean he’d fallen part-way out of bed during the night?” Father Allen asked.

“No,” Ellie replied. “It was the strangest thing. I’m not sure what happened. He hadn’t fallen. But he’d pulled that chair he kept next to the bed, up as close as it could get to the bed … and then he’d turned in his bed as much as he could, and he’d put his head over onto the arm of the chair. And that’s how I found him … with his head laying over against the arm of the chair. It was strange … but he also looked more peaceful than I’ve ever seen him.”

My new friend was a loving and faithful husband. He was a good father and friend. I know that he didn't have a chair like Tom’s next to his bed, but I know that three weeks ago he found the hope he was looking for, and he told God that when it was time to come home to Him, that because he’d found redemption, hope and eternity in Him … even though like the vineyard workers, it was at the end of the day, that he was ready. And for that, many people in his life are thankful.

You know, death has a way of putting life into perspective … it reminds us of our own mortality … it whispers in our ear a suggestion to get OUR house in order, to set OUR priorities straight, to see OURSELVES as people with a beginning and an end.

And that kind of perspective urges us to ask questions like “HOW can I move from today into tomorrow without regret over how I've lived?” “HOW can I make the most of my life, sometimes in the midst of hard circumstances, yes, sometimes even in the midst of death.”

Everybody here today has a different story – a different history – a different collection of victories and joys – different set of sorrows and pains. And our story and our history and our sorrows and our victories make us who we are. But you know what? None of us have to STAY who we are.

Author Clyde Reid once wrote, “Don’t wait, or you’ll end up waiting forever … jump into the now.” What wonderful words for us to hear and act on today. With God’s help you and I CAN change. We can take the leap of faith my new friend took three weeks ago when he came into a relationship with God.

In 1958 C.S. Lewis lost his wife Joy to cancer and during the next months he reflected and wrote on his feelings in a little book entitled A Grief Observed. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Joy’s absence is like the sky, spread over everything.”

Each in our own way we can connect with Lewis’ words … and that the pain of losing someone we loved to death feels “like the sky, spread over everything" as the pain and grief we feel seems overwhelming, and/or numbing.

But in the days following the death of someone we love, and as we invite God to be our comforter and our counselor, a remarkable thing can begin to happen – and we’ll notice that for short periods the hurt will not be so great. And this will be the beginning of our healing. And so I encourage each of us in two directions …

FIRST don’t deny the pain we feel when someone we loves dies.

SECOND, don’t reject the healing God wants to
bring to us in the days and weeks after the death of someone we love.

PSALM 23 (KING JAMES VERSION)

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

God is good. God can be trusted. God loves us. Small steps. Big God. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-10-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

SIMPLICITY AND TRUST

I've found that as my trust level in Jesus Christ goes up, my willingness and creativity about how to simplify my life and my life-style also increases. My ongoing struggle with greed is what usually keeps me from seeing the life of simplicity Jesus wants me to know -- and what tempts me to not make the choice to live with less so I can discover what it's like to know more of Jesus Christ and His plans for my life. Like the old Sunday School song says, "The Devil is a sly old fox."

For me, greed is wanting things I don't have -- buying into the lie that once these things are in my possession I will somehow be transformed into someone I am currently not. But real transformation comes only through Jesus Christ. And so to live a life of simplicity in greater measure means that I must crave, long for, desire, and seek after this transformation of my mind, heart, words, and actions more than I crave, long for, desire, and seek after whatever else I believe might make me more happy.

What author Sam Storms says about "holiness" in his book Pleasures Evermore I could easily adapt to say about "simplicity". And what he says about "sin" I could easily adapt to speak of "greed". Here's what Sam writes, with the words "simplicity" and "greed" added into the text ...

The key to holiness [simplicity] isn’t
trying harder to hate sin, or avoid
sin, or be done with sin.

The key to holiness [simplicity] is falling
deeper in love with Jesus … I don’t believe
[as I once did] that the power to turn
from “the passing pleasures of sin” [greed]
spoken of in HEBREWS 11:25 is the result
of a religious Just-Say-No-Campaign.

How do you fight the pleasure of sin
[greed]? I’ll tell you … with another pleasure.
Holiness [simplicity] is not attained, at
least not in any lasting, life-changing way,
merely through prohibitions, threats,
fear, or shame-based appeals.

Holiness [simplicity] is attained by
believing in, trusting, banking on, resting
in, savoring, and cherishing God’s promise
of a superior happiness that comes only
by falling deeper in love with Jesus Christ.

The power that the pleasures of sin
[greed] exert on the human soul will
ultimately be overcome only by the
superior power of the pleasures of
knowing and being known, loving and
being loved by God in Christ.”
[pp. 17-28 | changes/additions mine]

My heart's desire is to know more Jesus Christ more ... and in knowing Him more, to follow Him more nearly. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-10-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

WISDOM OF BROKENNESS AND COURAGE OF FAITH

I was remind today of a quote from C.S. Lewis in his book "The Four Loves", and also of a verse in King David's fifty-first Psalm ...

C.S. LEWIS | THE FOUR LOVES

Those, like myself, whose imaginations far
exceed their obedience, are subject to a just
penalty: We easily imagine conditions far
higher than we have really reached. If we
describe what we have imagined, we may
make others, ... and make ourselves believe
that we have really been there – and so
deceive both them and ourselves.

PSALM 51:6 (THE MESSAGE) …

[God], What You're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then – and conceive a new, true life.

In my life, I've discovered that truthfulness in word and deed has both a price and a reward. The price is that choosing to become a seeking servant of Jesus Christ unlocks the door to truthfulness.

And the reward is that as I live this life of truthfulness with God, myself and others, I am presented by God with the gift of becoming more and more set free [or dare I say "compelled"?] in my attitudes and thoughts, in my words, and in my actions to live out the love of Jesus Christ to all who come across my path ... friends and enemies alike. Good gifts for sure.

God, may I have the wisdom of brokenness necessary
to live into and live out Lewis' words. And may I have
the courage of faith to say in my own words, and to
live out in my own choices what King David spoke of
in his fifty-first Psalm. Amen.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-10-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

BETRAYAL OR LOYALTY?

I want to ask you a question: “This past week, did you BETRAY God with your thoughts, with your words, or with your actions? … OR did you stay LOYAL to God with your thoughts, with your words, or with your actions?”

ZECHARIAH 4:10 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)
10 do not despise the days of small things.

SONG OF SOLOMON 2:15 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)
15 it’s the little foxes that spoil the vines.

Staying LOYAL, or taking the route of BETRAYAL … both ways of living involve you and me making “choices”. And all the steps of our faith (those we take FORWARD, and those we take BACKWARD) begin with small choices, small steps, and small course deviations. ZECHARIAH 4:10 challenges us through the life and words of this Old Testament Minor Prophet to “not despise the days of small things.”

In SONG OF SOLOMON 2:15, King Solomon tells us that in a vineyard, “it’s the little foxes that spoil the vines” – in other words, that when we don't take the time and effort to heed THE SMALL THINGS IN LIFE, we’ll lose THE IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE.

So do you see how come you and I need Jesus to help us as we make all the day-to-day choices of our lives? And do you see how foolish it is to try and live life on our own! Because without Jesus at the center of our lives … without us submitting to His leadership in our lives … we’ll value the wrong things and ignore the right things – and our lives will end up off course in ways we’d never imagine.

It’s been said that filmmaker Walt Disney
was ruthless in cutting anything that got
in the way of a movie’s pacing. The story is
told that Ward Kimball, one of the animators
for Disney’s 1937 classic, Snow White, worked
240 days on a 4 ½ minute sequence in
which the dwarfs made soup for Snow White
and almost destroyed the kitchen in the process.
While viewing previews of the film Walt thought
that this scene Kimball had worked so hard
on was funny … but he eventually decided the
scene slowed down the overall flow of
the picture, and so he cut it out.

When the film of your life is shown, will it be as great as it might have been? A lot will depend on how many “good things” we made the choice to eliminate, in order to make way for the “great things” God wants to do through us. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-10-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

OUR CHOICES

I've been thinking about the times of testing and discipline God takes us through as His followers. Satan would love for these chapters of our lives to cause greater pain, brokenness, and isolation from God. But I believe God has different goals in mind for us as His children ... greater freedom, greater healing, and greater partnership. Whose plans will we seek out and embrace?

Do not be deceived: The fruit of today (just as in any day of our lives) will flow out from whatever source we choose to let the "headwaters of our lives" flow from. When we choose to make the headwaters of our lives us (our plans, our agendas, our efforts, our way), the water of our lives becomes and remains bitter and undrinkable. But as we choose to make the headwaters of our lives God (His plans, His agendas, His efforts, His way), the water of our lives becomes pure and refreshing.

Ultimately, the ministries each of us have been called to and entrusted with have very little to do with us. We are called to be broken, teachable, faithful, servant leaders. And as we make the choice to partner with Jesus Christ to become these things, the fruit will be surrender to God and to one another, visible righteousness, restored relationships, and peace of mind and heart. I'm sure that you have found to be true what I have found to be true: That when it comes to fruit, we usually find what we are looking for, and we usually eat what we pick off the tree. Again, choices.

I am believing and praying that the life and ministry we put our hearts and hands to will be more centered in Jesus Christ than ever. More beautiful in their expression of worship, sacrifice and service than ever. More tender and confessional than ever. More fun than ever. More incarnational and sacramental than ever. And more encouraging and equipping than ever.

Yes, God is sovereign. Yes, God will do what God wants to do. But because God has chosen to define Himself by His love for us, and by His relationship and fellowship with us, therefore, much of what He chooses to do is predicated on what we choose to do. Broken, teachable, faithful, servant leaders. This is the road we must travel with Him. Today and each day of our lives. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-09-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

FATE OR DESTINY?

JOHN 12:27-28a
(NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

27 Now My soul has become troubled; and what
shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour?
But for this purpose I came to this hour.
28a Father, glorify Your name.’

If any of us in this room were called upon to give up our lives for another person, it wouldn’t be an easy decision – no matter how much we loved them. And it wasn’t easy for Jesus Christ to do this either. v. 27 … "Now My soul has become troubled" … it wasn't EASY, but it was THE WILL OF GOD. And the work that would be accomplished by His death on the cross was Jesus Christ’s entire purpose in life. It was His DESTINY.

The cross wasn’t just the instrument God used so that Jesus could pay the price for your sin and for my sin … it’s also an example Jesus Christ left for all of us about how He wants us to live life as His followers. Here’s how Jesus talked about this truth in the middle of The Gospel of Matthew …

MATTHEW 10:38
(NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow Me,
you are not worthy of being Mine.

Which brings us to a FAITH LESSON …

Friends, life isn’t about just chasing the definition
of “success” offered to us by the world … FUN,
MONEY, TITLE, and POWER.

All of life centers around the truth that Jesus Christ
wrestled with the will of God and gave up His life so
that our sins could be forgiven, so that you and I can
enter back into a relationship with God, and so that
we could learn a whole new way to be human. Jesus
Christ gave His life for us, and so we need to give
our lives up for Him.

And this means that while you might have plans to graduate from college and become a famous doctor, a famous artist, or a famous anything else – that it might be God's plan that you live a life of poverty ministering God’s WORD to people in Indonesia, Butteville, Oregon, Haiti, Flint, Michigan, or some other economically impoverished place.

Or this might mean that while you have plans to move into the dream home you’ve drawn over and over again in your mind, or even on paper – and then live a comfortable life of luxury – perhaps God's desire for you is to deny yourself that lifestyle, and make the choice to use your income to meet the needs of people who are suffering.

Or, perhaps, like God does with some people, maybe God will call you to be famous, or give you the ability to make loads of money – but then He’ll ask you to make the choice to live your life with open hands before Him and use your gifts of making money to invest into the things of this life that will last, that will make a difference, and that will serve His purposes.

The Apostle Paul willingly gave up everything for God – his career, his future, his gifts, his money, his freedom … and here’s how he joyfully talked about this choice he made in a letter he wrote to his friends in the Asia Minor town of Philipi ...

PHILIPPIANS 3:7-11
(J.B. PHILLIPS TRANSLATION)

7-8 Yet every advantage that I had gained I considered
lost for Christ's sake. Yes, and I look upon everything
as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing
Jesus Christ my Lord. For His sake I did in actual fact
suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless
rubbish compared with being able to win Christ.

9-11 For now my place is in Him, and I am not
dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness
of the Law. God has given me that genuine righteousness
which comes from faith in Christ. How changed are
my ambitions! Now I long to know Christ and the power
shown by His resurrection: now I long to share His sufferings,
even to die as He died, so that I may perhaps attain
as He did, the resurrection from the dead.

Yes death is loss, but it’s also gain. What we give up in our life when we come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is nothing (PHILIPPIANS 3:8 … “rubbish”) compared to the value of knowing Jesus Christ. And when we make the choice to not live our lives for Jesus Christ, we'll never know the power of His resurrection, we’ll never have a deep and mature fellowship with Him, and we’ll never be completely conformed to Him.

And don’t think for a minute that there aren’t Christians who are actually losing their lives because of putting their faith in God. Don’t keep your heads in the sand. Go to www.persecution.com, and read about the hundreds of Christians who just this past week in India, who have had their homes and churches burned by radical Hindus, and who have lost their lives because of their public commitment to Jesus Christ.

But gang, as the followers of Jesus Christ, LEARNING TO DIE TO OURSELVES, and LEARNING TO LIVE IN HIM is the only choice that makes any sense. The choices about how we use our gifts, our time, our resources, and even our very selves.

But before you just click off from the notion that God wants you and me to trust Him with the parts of our lives that are central to who we are, and not just with the peripheral parts of what it means to be human … I want you to know that I wrestle with this truth in the same way that Jesus did, and that you are. I get it that in these times of economic downturn that it can be challenging to trust God with all these areas of our lives – and maybe especially with our finances.

It’s easy to be afraid that if we give God what He’s asking us to give … to the church and to other ministries He’s speaking to us about … that maybe God won’t keep up His end of the bargain, or that maybe that even if God wants to, He won’t be able to really meet all of our needs. But friends, nothing could be further from the truth.

PHILIPPIANS 4:15-19
(GOOD NEWS TRANSLATION)

15-17 You Philippians know very well that
when I left Macedonia in the early days of
preaching the Good News, you were the only
church to help me; you were the only ones
who shared my profits and losses. More than once when
I needed help in Thessalonica, you sent it to me. It
is not that I just want to receive gifts; rather, I want
to see profit added to your account.

18-19 Here, then, is my receipt for everything
you have given me — and it has been more than
enough! I have all I need now that Epaphroditus has
brought me all your gifts. They are like a sweet-
smelling offering to God, a sacrifice which is
acceptable and pleasing to Him. And with all His abundant
wealth through Christ Jesus, my God will supply all your needs.

Gang, it might be easy for you, as the sheep who make up the flock of 2nd Street, to maybe think that when I talk with you about your finances, that I’m just trying to line my own pockets. But it’s clear to me that you’re not here because of 2nd Street’s great building. And I know that there are other pastors here in town who can shepherd circles … and that there are other teachers here in town whose wisdom will make what I have to offer as pretty elementary.

I get that. But it’s because of those things that I also know that you’re not here at 2nd Street because of this building, or because of me, but that you’re here because you’re committed to 2nd Street’s Mission of being SPIRITUAL SEEKERS COOPERATING WITH GOD AND ONE ANOTHER TO BECOME DEVOTED FOLLOWERS OF JESUS CHRIST. I know that you’re behind what we’re behind, and that you want to go where we’re going as a flock. And as the lead pastor-teacher here, that’s more important to me than anything else. That God has called here together, not by accident, not without a reason, but with DESTINY.

It’s important that as we’re growing up in our faith, that we realize that what we do with our money, and ultimately who and what we put our trust into, is a critical part of what it means to be a Christ-follower. I mean, when we call Jesus “LORD”, what we’re saying is that ALL WE HAVE IS HIS, AND THAT APART FROM HIM WE CAN DO NOTHING. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-09-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

WHAT ARE MY TREASURES?

Remember Harper Lee's small-boned, big hearted book To Kill A Mockingbird? What was it about? Racism? Character? Justice? Family? Truth? Forgiveness? Discovery? Faith? Integrity? All these things and more flowed out of Harper's soul and pen as she scribed the novel of her lifetime. Scout, Atticus, Jem, Dill, Tom, and Boo showed us their vulnerability and their flaws, their losses and their pains, their hopes and their dreams. Real people living real lives, smack dab in the middle of real chapters of temptation, crisis, and testing.

And the character and integrity I was schooled in by looking into the stories of the people Lee introduced to me so many years ago, reflect much of what I want to see alive and straining for greater life in myself and in the people who make up the flock of seeking Christ-followers I serve in Newberg, Oregon.

Some sectors of society and culture say character and integrity come from breeding, education, money, and title. Some religions say that they come from a faith based in works, or from hidden-until-you're-good-enough knowledge attainable by only the chosen few, while still others says they come from an obedience both blind and unquestioning.

So where do character and integrity come from? I've come to believe that they come from what we cherish, from what we hold close, from what we treasure. Here's how Jesus put it in MATTHEW 6:21 ...

"The place where your treasure is,
is the place you will most want to be,
and end up being." (THE MESSAGE)

In To Kill A Mockingbird Jem shares with Scout treasures he'd been finding (receiving?) and stashing in an old cigar box, making her promise "to never tell anybody." A crayon, an old pocket watch, marbles, a whistle, a spelling medal, and a pocketknife ... all things he'd found in the knothole of a tree ... things left for him in an unlikely place by someone he believed knew him and cared about him.

Eventually, in the knothole, Jem and Scout also find two carved soap figurines - one a boy, and the other a girl with a simple cloth dress. And it doesn't take long before they realize that the playthings they've been given resemble themselves ...

"Look, the boy has hair in front of his
eyebrows like you do ... Yeah - and the girl
wears bangs like you - these are us!"

Friends, let's be careful about where we find our treasures, from whom we receive our treasures, what we keep as our treasures, and how we live into and pass on our treasures. Our treasures will define us. May we find our treasures solely in the person of Jesus Christ.

And may it be His character, and His integrity growing inside of us and flowing out of us, that shapes our lives, drives our mission, transforms our priorities, and our builds our dreams. God knows us and gives Himself to us in spite of what He knows. Astounding. What defines you? What's in your cigar box? Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-08-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

CONVICTIONS

It seems that convictions are curious beasts -- sometimes shoring us up and making us feel strong and protected while being embraced, and at other times costing us in ways that can be hard to measure at first, but which in the end have a cost greater than what we might anticipate. But the bottom line is that all of us must live by the convictions we hold, and that in a way hold us. Time tell us whether our convictions and the decisions they give birth to makes us feel ...

1. More shored up in our relationship with others, ourselves, and God ... or ...
2. More dismantled in our relationship with others, ourselves, and God.

Strangely, I've discovered that sometimes when I think my convictions and decisions will result in # 1 being true, I then discover that they've left me standing squarely in front of # 2.

And conversely, when I've thought that my convictions and decisions will result in # 2, I've sometimes then discovered that I've been left holding onto # 1. Of course it doesn't always turn out in this flip-flop manner -- but it happens just often enough that I can really feel beat up by doubts and second-guessing what decisions. Neither of which are any good.

I am learning, however, that I can't allow my convictions and decisions to stand in the way of the relationships and friendships I have with the people I love ... and that when this threat looms on the horizon, that I must take the high road, lay down "my rights" to be heard, to convince, and even to even to some measure, to discuss ... for the sake of moral civility.

To use the old cliche, I'm not "willing to think I've won the war just because I've won one battle." Life is bigger, deeper, wider, and more complex than that. And I'm just trying to keep a hold of Jesus' hand while I walk through it ... manifesting His character, His thoughts, His words, and His actions. Easier said than done, right? Right. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-08-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

LIVING IN A POSTURE
OF GRATITUDE ...

One of the things that helps us keep our focus and our footing in life is to uncover and nurture an attitude of gratitude. Celebrate Recovery (www.celebraterecovery.com) is a ministry of healing discipleship that helps people move toward living in this place of thankfulness and surrender. Here are some thoughts about Principle 7 of Celebrate Recovery's 8 Principles ...

CELEBRATE RECOVERY'S PRINCIPLE 7 ...

Reserve a daily time with God for
self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer
in order to know God and His will for
my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

Why daily? Because we live life daily. Read more about this "Mana Principle" in EXODUS 16.

Why with God? Because God is our source and power.

Why self-examination? Because without honesty there is is no new growth … and without new growth there is stagnation … and with stagnation comes death.

No new growth = stagnation
Stagnation = death
Growth = fresh move of God
Maturity = fresh vision from God

Why Bible reading? Because it’s God’s primary way of speaking to us. If we don’t believe this we’re deluding ourselves and opening ourselves up to be hurt not guarded, lost not guided, and uprooted not grounded.

Why prayer? Because prayer is conversation … and without conversation our life with God grows distant and cold.

Why know God’s will? Because this is the path we’re to walk as His followers. And if we’re not taking on the character of Jesus Christ, we won’t be equipped to live into the will of God with consistency and power.

God’s power? Related to us being in the WORD, becoming people of prayer, surrender and learning to stop depending on ourselves.

In JOHN 5:15 Jesus Christ says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing." And in PHILIPPIANS 4:13 the Apostle Paul says, “Through Christ Jesus I can do all things.”

To follow God’s will? There’s a very big difference between KNOWING GOD’S WILL and KNOWING AND FOLLOWING GOD’S WILL. Let’s learn to do God’s will, God’s way.

Without LISTENING there is no true SURRENDER.
Without SURRENDER there is no true SACRIFICE.
Without SACRIFICE there is no true WORSHIP.
Without true WORSHIP there is no true VISION.
Without true VISION there is no true POWER.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-07-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

WHO IS IN CONTROL OF OUR LIVES?

D.L. Moody (1837-1899), the founder of Moody Bible School in Chicago, was planning a campaign in England to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with thousands of people. Before Moody came to town it was said that an elderly pastor protested, "Why do we need this 'Mr. Moody'? He's uneducated and inexperienced. Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?" To which a younger, much wiser pastor responded, "No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody."

Friends, wouldn’t it be great if these words could be said of you and of me? That the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on our lives, on our words, on our passions, on our gifts, on our hearts, and on our minds? In LUKE 10:38-42 and then six months later in JOHN 11, Jesus wanted both Mary and Martha to know the LEADING, the COMFORT, and the DIRECTION of the Holy Spirit during this crisis time in their lives. But they were so beat down over Lazarus’ illness, and then his death, that they started depending on themselves instead of on Jesus. And they learned the FAITH LESSON we all need to learn …

FAITH LESSON …

When we get our eyes off Jesus
Christ and start depending on our
own strength instead of the strength
of God’s Holy Spirit … discouragement
and depression won’t be far behind …
and usually we’ll end up trying to blame
God for the hard times we’re going
through.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-06-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the posting delays. With vacation, work, and the connecting with the needs of my mom since her stroke, my blog has bogged down. But I'm turning over a new leaf!

WHAT WE LEARN ABOUT OURSELVES FROM JOHN 9 …

FIRST, WE HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PAIN AND SUFFERING WE SEE IN OUR OWN LIVES AND IN THE WORLD.

This is natural. If we didn’t have these questions then we’d be living life with our eyes closed and our minds shut down.

Disease and all the other results of the fact that sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden … these things are experienced by everyone. Those who aren’t in relationship and fellowship with God, and those who are. All of us have sinned and live under the curse of sin. In MATTHEW 5:45 Jesus taught this lesson clearly when He said that the rain falls equally on the crops of the righteous and the unrighteous.

At times Jesus removes certain aspects of sin's curse – like in this story in JOHN 9 … the man was born blind, but God restored his sight. But even this man’s healing doesn’t automatically remove him from all the physical aspects of the curse in a fallen world as it relates to aging, susceptibility to sickness etc … but what it does give in this life is restoration of fellowship with God in the Spirit. And that’s priceless!

SECOND, GOD WILL GIVE US OPPORTUNITIES TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT HIM, ABOUT WHAT HE’S DOING IN OUR LIVES (THE INSTRUCTION, THE HEALING, AND THE DIRECTION HE’S GIVING US). WE NEED TO BE WILLING TO WALK THROUGH THESE DOORS GOD OPENS UP FOR US.

vv. 13-34 … We don’t need to be afraid of this, even if we don’t have all the answers. We just need to be willing to offer the testimony of our mouths (our "story") concerning what Jesus has done and is doing in our lives. Here's a simple outline to use as you think about how to share your story ...

My life before Jesus … what was missing?
How I met Jesus … what He brought to me and filled up the missing places of my life with.
How my life has changed and is changing since coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ … what I’m learning.

THIRD, IT CAN BE EASY TO TRY TO TAKE GLORY FROM GOD. WE’VE GOT TO STAY AWAY FROM THIS TRAP.

vv. 24-34 … Gang, God doesn’t share His glory with anyone.

FOURTH, WISDOM WILL COME TO THOSE WHO GIVE GOD THE GLORY FOR WHAT HE IS DOING IN THEIR LIVES.

vv. 30-34 … Wisdom isn’t the “possession” of those with great “knowledge.” No way. Rather, wisdom is the gift of God to those with great humility, who exhibit great surrender, and who are willing to share the life of faith they have with God with the people God brings across their paths.

FIFTH, GREAT BELIEF IN GOD LEADS TO GREAT WORSHIP OF GOD.

v. 38 … God has hard-wired us to be in communion with Him. Rich Mullin’s wrote a song called “Screen Door” that talks about this. The main line says, “Faith without works is like a screen door on a submarine. Faith without works. It just ain’t happening!”

SIXTH, AS HUMAN BEINGS, WE’RE PRONE TO PRIDE AND ARROGANCE … AND BLINDNESS IS THE FRUIT OF BOTH OF THESE SINS.

vv. 39-41 … Getting to know Jesus, touching Jesus, obeying Jesus, and believing into Jesus this is where healing and the answers to our questions will be found.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-05-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

Friends,

Remember being in elementary school and doing Show And Tell? I went to First, Second, Third, and Fourth Grades at Pioneer Elementary School in Quincy, Washington, and I remember some great Show and Tells.

One day in Second Grade, a kid named Bobby brought something in a bag that he was really excited to TELL us about and then SHOW us. But I’ll never forget the collective gasp that sucked all the oxygen out of the room when he opened up the bag and shook out a dead bunny that he’d found the night before. It wasn’t bloody or anything. It just basically looked like it was sleeping. And Bobby (along with most of the kids) thought it was so cool. But the teacher? Not so much.

Then in Third Grade, when it was GRANDPARENT WEEK, a girl named Janet wanted to bring her grandfather to school for Show and Tell. I guess our teacher thought that maybe Janet’s grandpa could tell the class about all the ways he’d seen the world change since the turn of the 20th Century or something instructive like that. But of course that wasn’t what happened. Because Janet brought her grandfather to class all right – but he was in an urn. Which of course was something that most of us in the class hadn’t ever seen before. Again, very cool. I remembered those two Show And Tells, that’s for sure.

Well this morning the story John tells us in JOHN 9 is kind of like Show And Tell. Actually it’s more like Tell And Show … I did the Tell earlier in the service when I read through JOHN 9:1-41 and shared a bit of commentary with you along the way. And now I’ll do the Show part of the equation, as I share with you some of the things I believe God wants to teach us through this story …

SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS ABOUT JESUS
SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS ABOUT US, AND …
SOME IMPORTANT LESSONS ABOUT HEALING

This is an exciting section of God’s WORD, and as I’ve been studying it and praying through it, and preparing to share it with you this past week, I’ve been really blessed to see how God wants me to open it up for us here this morning. Unlike most of the chapters of John’s Gospel, JOHN 9:1-41 is ONE COMPLETE STORY. In this and the next two blog postings, I'll share these three sets of lessons I'm learning from JOHN 9.

WHAT WE LEARN ABOUT JESUS FROM JOHN 9 …

v. 1 … FIRST, JESUS LOOKS AT YOU AND ME WITH EYES OF COMPASSION AND HOPE.

His COMPASSION enables Jesus to see us as we really are, and love us anyway. And His HOPE enables Jesus to see what we can become if we’ll surrender our brokenness and our pain to His touch.

Sometimes Jesus invites us to put our faith in Him and THEN He brings healing into our lives. And sometimes He brings healing into our lives and THEN He calls us to faith in Him. It’s not a fixed formula that has to be followed.

Jesus is God. He can do this however He wants to do it. I don’t want to KNOW, SERVE and SURRENDER MY LIFE to a God that I can completely understand … a God that I put into a box. Because that would mean that I’d be KNOWING, SERVING and SURRENDERING to a God who is less powerful and wise and me. And believe me, I know how low that sets that bar!

I want to KNOW and SERVE and SURRENDER my life to a God who is full of mystery, and who doesn’t do whatever I ask Him to do … but Who’s character is consistent, whose compassion is deep, and whose plans can be trusted.

vv. 6-7 … SECOND, JESUS LONGS TO TOUCH US (WE NEED TO BE WILLING) … GOD LONGS TO INSTRUCT US (WE NEED TO BE TEACHABLE) … GOD LONGS TO HEAL US (WE NEED TO BE OBEDIENT). WILLING, TEACHABLE, OBEDIENT … they’re all about SURRENDER.

vv. 1-41 … THIRD, JESUS WANTS TO TEACH US ABOUT HEALING, AND ABOUT WHO HE IS AS JEHOVAH-RAPHA, “THE GOD WHO HEALS”.

God first revealed this “healing” part of His nature to the Israelites in EXODUS 15 …

After God took the Children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, He brought them into the wilderness of Shur, where for three days they wandered around without water. For seventy-two hours the scorching sun of the desert beat down on them, and the sand burned their feet. Their livestock was dying, their children’s tongues were swollen, and their lips were parched to the point of cracking.

Then, they came to the waters of Marah. Imagine how their hearts must have leaped in their chests when they saw it! They could almost taste it, and feel it cooling them down and refreshing their swollen mouths. But when they got there, the water was bitter, dank and literally undrinkable.

And so immediately they turned on Moses and started to blame him. And isn’t this what we do when we come into hard times, when we have an area of our lives that isn’t working out the way we thought it should, or the way we hoped it would, or even the way we prayed it would? We all too easily grumble, murmur, and complain … instead of believing, hoping, and praying. And yet, God still has plans for us, just waiting for us to discover and live into.

Yes they were in a hard chapter of their lives, but God had brought them out of Egypt, and He would take care of them. And that day God used Moses to make the bitter water sweet by taking a nearby tree and placing it into the water. Mysterious. God-like. God’s care and provision made visible.

And just like the Israelites, God has brought you and me through so much. He hasn’t turned His back on us . Not by a long shot. And so it was here at the waters of Marah that God taught the Israelites that He was Jehovah-Rapha, the God who heals.

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:11 (CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION)

11 These things happened to them as a warning to us. All this was written in the Scriptures to teach us who live in these last days.

v. 31 … FOURTH, OUR SIN BUILDS A WALL BETWEEN US AND GOD. CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE REMOVES THIS WALL, AND OPENS US UP MORE FULLY TO THE LIFE OF REDEMPTION GOD HAS FOR US. THE RESULT OF CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE IS THE RECEIVING OF GRACE AND PEACE.

Maybe you’re here this morning and God wants to bring His healing to your life … but there’s something in the way, there’s some sin you need to confess, repent of, and move away from. If that’s you, what are you going to do about it?

v. 35 … Jesus knows us and stays in touch with us in the midst of our pain and our rejection. We’re not alone. HEBREWS 4:13 …

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:13 (THE MESSAGE)

13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.

HEBREWS 4:13, 15-16 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

vv. 39-41 … FIFTH, JESUS CAME TO TURN THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN, AND TO RIGHT THE WRONG THAT SIN HAS BROUGHT INTO THE WORLD.

Again, this bring us back to the great COMPASSION and HOPE Jesus has for us … that He brings to us, that motivates His desire to bring His healing to our lives.

In the next posting I'll share with you what I'm learning about myself as a human being from JOHN 9. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-04-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

NATURAL CHURCH GROWTH ...
WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING

The change and growth of a church community can be dumbfounding. At times the numbers diminish, and it's a sign of winnowing, cleansing, and sharpening. At other times the numbers increase and it's a sign of hero-worship instead of Jesus-worship. But whether a church's growth curve is spiking up or tumbling down -- change is more than likely reflective of what is happening in the root system of the tree called "the church".

But let me focus on growth, not decline for a few minutes. Like the old AA saying, "Sometimes quickly. Sometimes slowly." Sometimes growth comes as the result of a sovereign move of God -- catching us totally off-guard. And at other times growth comes as the result of intentionally discerning what God is doing and then partnering with Him. Sometimes when growth comes we're ready spiritually, but unprepared organizationally. And at other times when growth comes we've been looking for it for a long time but fail to see what God is up to, and quickly attribute it to our own efforts, or even "the luck of the draw."

Teresa and I recently spent time at the annual pastor's conference, sponsored by NW Yearly Meeting of Friends Church (www.nwfriends.org) and hosted by Twin Rocks Friends Camp in Rockaway Beach, OR (www.twinrocks.org). We had a great time there and during one of our meals a fellow pastor asked me what 2nd Street can attribute it's recent growth to, and here's a synopsis of what I shared with him ...

Elders and leaders who worship, pray, and even fast together. This brings humility, insight, courage, and stamina.
Worship that is varied, contemporary, contemplative, with many different instruments and teams ... always focusing on Jesus Christ ... interspersed with Scripture. This draws people's hearts and minds away from ego, fear and tradition.
People telling their stories ... up front and personal about how Jesus Christ is changing the way they think, what they feel, what they're saying, and what they are doing. This helps create an "us story", not a "me and them story" within our midst.
Teaching from God's Word that is in-depth, and yet that leaves most of the individual application up to the Holy Spirit. This helps those who gather remain God-dependent, not Gregg-dependent. I just finished teaching # 30 out of John's Gospel -- and next week I'm studying for, praying through, and preparing to teach on JOHN 9:1-7. Before John I taught from FIRST PETER and HAGGAI. Remember that the tortoise won the race, not the hare. Slow doesn't have to equal boring. Rather, intentional can equal thorough, engaging, and deep. I believe that when it comes to the teaching of Gods' WORD, this is what people are longing for in their spirits. To come to worship and drink deeply of the things of God. And people become hungry and thirsty for what they eat and drink. And so as they eat and drink deeply on Sunday, that becomes the desire of their hearts throughout the week. Little will no longer satisfy. Shallow will no longer sustain.
A leadership team who are more concerned about their own (and one another's) faithfulness than about their qualifications. Much of the time when our qualifications are what is being focused on, we will remain unwilling (or not even see the need) for the discipline it takes to become a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. But when faithfulness is what is pursued, focused on, and desired, most of the time, God will get the person qualified (in His way, in His time, and with the person's cooperation) to do whatever He has planned for them to do in the Kingdom. This posture leads to teamwork, not competition.
Working with other local churches in a spirit of cooperation (Community Health Day in August, Serve and Celebration in September, Feed the Need Community Food Drive in October). We pray for another church, and or local ministry every Sunday. We are contending nor in competition with no one. As each Christ-honoring church in Newberg thrives, we all become stronger. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done".
We "weigh and measure" everything we do against our Mission Statement and and our Values ... discerning our annual Ministry Plans before we design them and then letting our Ministry Funding Plans simply follow them, not the other way around. This keeps us lean and attentive to the purpose of our life-together. God has used this methodology to help us increase our Ministry Funding Plan by over 125K in the past two years.
We regularly invite people on Sunday morning to make the choice to become devoted followers of Jesus Christ. There should be no shame or privatizing of our faith. The inner must turn outward with celebration and the strength of community.
Community Groups (small groups) are growing because we have a Community Group Facilitator who is making them visible. One year ago we had 6 Community Groups meeting regularly. Now we have 18. This is where much of the pastoral care and serving takes place -- as all Community Groups have a service component built into them ... we study and learn together, we seek and find together, and we serve God and the world together. This is knitting our hearts to God and one another at a deeper level.
We highly value and model authenticity, surrender, brokenness, and transparency. Our Celebrate Recovery (www.celebraterecovery.com) has grown from around twenty people a week 18 months ago to over 50 weekly ... including big group, small group, and step-studies. With great surrender, great healing comes, with great healing, great discipleship happens, and with great discipleship, great leadership develops, and with great leadership, more people will be drawn towards Jesus Christ and into a life with Him.

I know that not everything that works at one church will work at another church. But that's mostly just true with programs. But notice that what I've written about above has very, very little to do with programs. It has to do with posture, with heart, with attitude, with desires, with mission, with passion, and with focus. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-04-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

SMALL STEPS. BIG GOD

My mom Nancy had a stroke last Thursday. I feel helpless because I am ... just as I'm sure my mom feels helpless. Larry Hine, a man who has been a spiritual director to both the late Henri Nouwen, and to Brennan Manning often used a blessing with these two men, that for some reason keeps coming to mind during these days and nights ...

"May all your expectations be
frustrated. May all your plans
be thwarted. May all of your
desires be withered into nothing-
ness, that you may experience
the powerlessness and poverty of
a child and sing and dance in the
love of God the Father the Son,
and the Spirit." Amen!

Like you, I wish I knew the way the road ahead is going to turn -- up, down, right, or left. But of course, we cannot know such things. And so I make the choice to surrender, to trust, to wait, to pray, to listen, to hope, to embrace, and to cherish.

The picture above this post was taken by my brother Brad. It's his hand holding my mom's as she lays in her hospital bed. I believe it's a good visual metaphor of how God is holding onto my mom right now -- and of course, to me and to you. Small steps. Big God. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-03-30T16:59:00.001-07:00

THE SHACK
BY WILLIAM P. YOUNG

I just finished shacking up with William P. Young. I guess William's middle name is Paul -- and from reading his blog and others, and while following but not joining in the conversations about The Shack I found there -- I discovered that he goes by Paul. So that's what I'll call him from now on in this short email.

I found little in Paul's words to be fearful of and much about them ponder-able.

I think that building theology on the Bible and not on literature, sacred or secular is always a good idea. So I'll keep building my ragamuffin beliefs on God's Word and not, for instance, on Flannery O'Connor, Eugene Peterson, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dr. Seuss, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, or Paul Young for that matter. And I'd issue the same caution for building our theology on our experiences. Sandy ground to be sure. At least my experiences. Maybe yours are more sacredly sound than my own adolescent fumblings.

I found Paul's writing getting better from the front of the book to the back. This seems like something an editor could have helped him with. And yet, overall, if I was grading him on "improvement of thought, writing, structure and the portrayal of intent" I'd give him pretty high marks. But I can't say the same thing for his belief-system. It seemed rickety at best, and downright fragile at worst. But then I'm sure some might say the same thing about mine.

And the reason I see Paul's belief system as rickety and fragile is because it seems to have been primarily built on his experiences and disappointments with God, rather than with his interaction with God's written and living Word. At least 1/2 and 1/2 would have been an improvement.

I think that when we have a single-hearted devotion to Jesus Christ we can (and should) read books like this that have somehow caught the hearts, minds, and imaginations of God-seekers and Christ-followers from across a broad spectrum of denominational and transdenominational flavors.

But I also want to temper that belief with by following Paul's keen advice in ROMANS 16:19 that Christ-followers be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil -- because I believe that to do so will save us not only from doctrinal error, but from spiritual heartache and regret.

I see Paul simply trying to share his with-God experiences -- however "sketchy and/or freely expanded-upon" they seem to be. Is what he shares incomplete? Sure. And yet, let's not expect a book to be different than the intention it was birthed from. I don't see it was Paul's goal to write a volume of systematic theology. Like all things written down in words, Paul's describing the God he has experienced, and not the God he is experiencing. But is it heresy? No, I don't think so. Maybe it's kind of how I view the 7th Day Adventist Church? Is it a cult? No. Do I want to sign up to let them teach me about end times, angels, and dietary laws? No thanks. Likewise, I don't want Paul to teach me theology. But I do think I can learn some things from him ... more about that in a future post.

Maybe Paul will write a belief-stepped sequel and call it The Condo. If he does, I hope it includes some of the life-lessons and God-lessons he's no doubt learning and taking for a test-drive now that his book is such a big hit (# 9 last week on www.amazon.com out of millions of books).

Unlike some of my friends and colleagues, I don't see Paul's words marketing "cheap grace". Rather, I see them revealing to us his incomplete understanding of grace. He's on a journey. And while I don't see myself walking side-by-side him right now, I have great hopes that he's authentically seeking the One True God.

Some web-postings about Paul and The Shack seem like they want to canonize the book and beatify the man. While others seem like they want to burn the book, and excommunicate the author. I see little need to give either extreme much attention.

But neither does Paul seem to me like a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's a man in process. Not everybody can embrace the neat-and-tidy-black-and-white theological categories of MacArthur and Piper. Nor can everyone feel at home in the bend-over-backwards-while-sticking-your-head-between-your-thighs flexible dogma of the emergent church movement's McLaren and Driscolll. Maybe Paul fancies himself living and believing somewhere in between. I know I do. But that doesn't make me a Youngite. It just makes me human.

I'm glad I read The Shack. But I'm also glad that my doubts and questions don't outweigh my beliefs and convictions 10 to 1 (it's probably more like a 80/20 split), that it's my goal to have my faith be both reasoned and experiential, and that I can know the intimacy of God as my "Abba" and Jesus as my "friend" while at the same time be in speechless awe that God is infinite, unknowable, and completely other to all I am and all I can know on my own. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-03-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

In MATTHEW 11:28 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) Jesus says, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Jesus didn’t say, “Come unto Me all you who are wise or wealthy or worthy.” He said, Come unto Me, all you who are weary.

Or remember when Jesus said in MATTHEW 9:12 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE), I haven’t come for the well, but for the sick.

In FIRST CORINTHIANS 1:26-27 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) the Apostle Paul says, Are there any among you who are wise? [implying that “no, there is not”] but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong …

Our God is in the business of choosing down-and-outers – people who’ve known rejection … and then He gets busy about transforming them from death into life. And this isn’t just some new plan God started using when Jesus came to earth. God has always used this method. It’s the same method God used in The Old Testament when He came to David in the wilderness and gave him some good, true, righteous men to stand and fight at his side. Listen to the description of who these God brought alongside David ...

FIRST SAMUEL 22:2 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) ... Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was disoriented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.

Distressed, in debt and disoriented. Now that’s a great resume! Do any of those descriptions ring a bell from your own life, from your own experience, from your own choices? Distressed, in debt and disoriented? And yet as this group of men followed David, they learned from him, they changed, and eventually they became a powerful, purposeful righteous band of brothers.

Or consider Jesus’ own disciples and His other followers. Three years before the cross came into the picture, Jesus asked this ragtag group of men and women to follow Him, and they weren’t exactly magna cum laude material. In JOHN 15:18 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) Jesus said to them … If the world hates and rejects you, you know that it has hated and rejected Me before it hated you.

And in the final hours of His life … when Jesus hung on the cross for you and for me, He was rejected, despised and forsaken. And nobody who’s ever walked this world has known the kind of rejection Jesus knew that day.

As Jesus went through the last days and hours leading up to the cross … and as the crown of thorns was forced down onto His head … and as He hung, nearly naked on the cross of Calvary … He experienced a gut-wrenching kind of rejection.

Jesus was alone as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest.
Jesus was alone before Caiaphas the High Priest.
Jesus was alone when He stood before Pilate and Herod.
Jesus was alone as He was nailed to the cross.
And ultimately, as Jesus tried to breathe, His body heaving up and down, and up and down on the cross, He was abandoned by His Father.

The Apostle Paul wrote in … SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:21 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) God made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

And when that happened, when Jesus became sin, God the Father had to look away from Him, reject Him, and abandon Him. Maybe you’ve felt some of the rejection Jesus felt on the days leading up to the cross and as He hung there on the cross.

Maybe you’ve felt alone … Maybe you can relate to Jesus in the Garden that night … maybe you’ve prayed prayers that didn’t seem to get out of the room, let alone make it all the way to God. Maybe, while going through hard things, it’s felt like God has forgotten about you, that you weren’t on God’s radar, or that God didn’t even know you existed.

Maybe you’ve felt alone … Maybe friends have turned their backs on you. You thought they were loyal … real friends. But when you needed them most they were nowhere to be found, or even worse, maybe they turned against you.

Maybe you’ve felt alone … Maybe the church hasn’t been there for you like you thought it should, hoped it could, or prayed it would. Maybe that’s the reason it’s been hard for you to trust the church, or really get involved in the church – because somewhere in your past it’s let you down.

Maybe you’ve felt alone … Maybe the government or other people in authority over you haven’t given you a fair shake, haven’t really heard your side of the story, haven’t stood with you when you needed them to.

If you’ve felt rejected or forsaken by God sometime during your life, I want to tell you that you haven’t been. Because the truth of the matter is that nothing can separate you and me from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus.

ISAIAH 53:3a (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) says that He [Jesus Christ] was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Because of what Jesus went through during His thirty-three years here on earth, and during the last week of His life, and on the last hours when He hung on the cross … Believe me when I tell you that He is “acquainted with grief.” In other words, He can relate to our hurts, to our pains, to our hang-ups, to our sorrows, to our disappointments.

To the teenager who doesn’t know how to fit in … or where to fit in. Jesus says, “Because of the Cross I’m acquainted with that kind of sorrow, with that kind of pain.”

To the man or woman whose spouse walked out on them … or to the man or woman whose spouse cheated on them, breaking their vows and their trust … Jesus says, “Because of the Cross I’m acquainted with that kind of desertion.”

To the student who tried to get into a certain school but was rejected. To the guy who had his heart stomped on by the girl who he thought loved him. To the employee who heard the words, “We’re downsizing” … whatever it is, Jesus says, “Because of the Cross I know about grief … I know about rejection … I know about pain.”

Again, the Apostle Paul writes, this time to the believers in the town of Ephesus (which was in what is now modern-day Turkey) EPHESIANS 1:6 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE) the praise of the glory of His [God the Father’s] grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [Jesus Christ].

The NEW KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible puts this verse this way … to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

In God’s WORD we read that we are …

The apple of God’s eye.
That we are the Bride of Christ.
That we are the Rose of Sharon.
That we are a Royal Priesthood, a Chosen People, and a Holy Nation.

This is who we are before God because of what happened on the Cross.

AMAZING LOVE
Chris Tomlin

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken,
I’m accepted … You were condemned.
I am alive and well … Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.

CHORUS …
Amazing love … How can it be?
That You, my King would die for me?
Amazing love … I know it’s true.
It’s my joy to honor You … In all I do, I honor You.

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken,
I’m accepted … You were condemned.
I am alive and well … Your spirit is within me,
Because You died and rose again.

You are my King
You are my King

God, thank You for Your willingness to send Your Son, Jesus Christ to the cross so that we can know You, be loved by You, and accepted by You. Thank you that in Jesus Christ, we are embraced by You. May the price Jesus paid on the cross drive our priorities deeper into Your heart. May the price Jesus paid on the cross convict us of shallow living, of half-hearted discipleship, of the cheapening of grace that we so easy participate in.

Thank You God for picking a "down and outer" like me. Today I choose to remember what You’ve done for me. What You alone could have done for me. And I thank You. And I embrace You. And I bow down before You. Amen.

Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-03-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

LETTER TO A LEADER ...

Earlier this week I wrote the following letter to a friend of mine in leadership. After reading back through it, I feel that it has more to say than to just this one person. So I'm sharing it here with you ...

Friend,

I'm glad that God's plans for your life and your gifts have included you being in the role you are in. I'm know that your journey to this place has included much praying, dreaming, envisioning, planning, waiting, learning, cooperating, leading, applying, serving, knowing, not knowing, and discovery. A Christ-follower, a leader of leaders, a parent, a Sunday School teacher, a friend, a sibling, a child ... you have worn and are wearing many hats.

I'm sure that old saying, "Be careful of what you hope and pray for!" has come to mind more than once in the past three decades of life, ministry and career. What a rare combination of gifts and callings you are. And through it all I have watched you stand strong with God. Thank you for your witness of what it means to have what Frederick Nietzsche said was lacking in so much of Christianity ... a "long obedience in the same direction."

Today while thinking about you my mind has gone to GENESIS 22:14 where God revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac and the ram, and where Abraham named the place God showed up "Jehovah Yireh" which doesn't exactly mean what the 1970's worship song says ... "Jehovah Jireh, my provider". And at the end of the day, the One who had issued the call, watched the obedience of Abraham and became his provider. Abraham didn't have to think long and hard about what to call the hilltop.

Again, the translation "Jehovah Jireh, my provider" is too "present and immediate" in it's tense for what this expression of God's character means. You and I both know from our own life-experiences what Abraham learned after climbing that mountain -- that as God leads, God also provides. But when you look at the Hebrew tense of the words in this verse (as The Emphasized Version of the Bible does), here is what's really being said ...

"So Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh, - as to which it is still said today, 'In the mountain of Yahweh, will provision be made.'" (italics mine)

In other words, "God's provision" isn't always quickly, or easily discovered, looked upon, or lived into. And yet, somehow, in response to our faithfulness, and our humble choice to look beyond the potentially flimsiness of our qualifications, God takes us on a journey of heart, mind and soul, that allows us to trust Him deeper, to depend on Him more consistently, to walk by faith and not by sight, and to hand over the outcomes of our lives into His hands in ways that move past stubborn obedience to true and total surrender."

And when we do this as GENESIS 22:14 says, "God's "provision will (in His timing, and in His way) be made."

Like they say in AA, "sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly." Trust God's timing. Trust the nudges God gives you and that you will only notice by being attentive, dey pendent upon Him, and fully surrendered to Him. Like what the Apostle Paul wrote to His friends in GALATIANS 3:3, I write to you ...

Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? (The Message)

And I love how this verse is rendered by J.B. Phillips ...

Surely you can't be so idiotic as to think that a man begins his spiritual life in the Spirit and then completes it by reverting to outward observances? Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere? I simply cannot believe it of you! (The J.B. Phillips New Testament In Modern English)

A person wouldn't start out a horse race, be way out in front of the pack, and then say, "I don't need this horse. I'm going to jump off it and finish this race on my own two legs. I'm fast enough. I can do this." They'd be a fool to try this. And yet this is the "craziness" and the "idiocy" we all-too-easily fall for when promoted by God to do greater things for Him in His Kingdom. What God has begun, let God continue doing.

So let me remind you today to let God's provision be seen in your visions, in your decisions AND IN the processes you take with God discerning and implementing them. Allow God to truly lead you, and then you can lead the others God has called you and equipped you to lead by simply staying in His footsteps.

Don't sprint ahead of God because of pride. Don't lag behind God because of fear. And as you stay in step with God, listen with the intention and humility of a servant listening for the voice and directions of the master. For a servant is what and who you are ... and what you must remain if you're to continue being God's person for the job He has called you to do. PSALM 123:1-2 speaks so beautifully of this ...

I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven. We look to the LORD our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal. (New Living Translation)

Blessings to you dear friend. Your master is signaling, so keep your eyes on Him. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-02-25T17:09:00.001-08:00

LIGHT AND DARKNESS

In JOHN 8:1-11 Jesus offered compassion and grace to the woman trapped in adultery ... and He responded with truth-speaking and judgment to the Jewish religious leaders who brought her to Jesus and nearly demanded that He join them in stoning her.

Remember JOHN 8 begins the day after the FEAST OF TABERNACLES ended … and Jesus had gone back to the Temple in the morning to teach. And like the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with the woman they caught “in the very act of adultery” – now they’re trying to catch Jesus in another trap. But wisdom is hard to bait.

And just like 2nd Streeter Edie Salmon most effectively displays the beauty and radiance of the gemstones she sells in her jewelry store against a background of black velvet … Jesus knew that the next words He was about to speak, as recorded here in JOHN 8:12, would come most vividly into focus when placed against the backdrop of the blackness and darkness of the story that just preceded it.

JOHN 8:12 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I
am the Light of the world; he who follows Me
will not walk in the darkness, but will have
the Light of life.”

And as we move into the study of these nineteen verses, I want us to ask ourselves several questions …

What does it mean that the world is dark, and in need of God’s Light?
What does it mean that our hearts are dark, and in need of God’s Light?
What is the purpose of Light?
What are the benefits of walking in the Light?

2nd Streeter Karl Harn sent me an email earlier this week with an apocryphal story/parable whose dialogue speaks into some of what Jesus is driving at as He tells these Jewish religious leaders that He’s the Light of the world.

The story begins with a college philosophy professor trying to trap a couple of students in his supposed logic. He wanted to show that if God “created evil” then God must “be evil” … and that faith can’t be basis of belief because unlike science it’s non-provable and non-sensory. And when the professor stopped talking in order to watch his bait squirm in the trap, one of the students speaks up and says …

“Professor, is there such a thing as heat?”
“Yes,” the professor replies. “There's heat.”
“And is there such a thing as cold?”
“Yes, son, there's cold too.”
“No sir, there isn't” the student said firmly but politely.

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested … the classroom becomes very quiet … and the student began to explain.
“Sir, you can have more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but there is no scientific classification of something called ‘cold’.

Every body or object is susceptible to study when it either has or transmits energy. And heat is what makes a body or object have or transmit energy. Absolute zero … or -458 Fahrenheit – is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only the word we made up to describe the absence of heat. Cold isn’t the opposite of heat … it’s just the absence of heat .” And as the student spoke these words, the silence in the classroom deepened.

“What about darkness, professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?” the student continued probing …
“Yes,” the professor replies without hesitation. “What is night if it isn't darkness?”

“Respectfully speaking sir, you're wrong again. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, and flashing light, but if you have no light, you have nothing and it's called darkness. Darkness is merely the word we made up to define, or give meaning to the absence of light. Darkness isn’t something. Like cold is the absence of heat, darkness is simply the absence of something.

“So what point are you making, young man?” the professor asked.

“Sir, my point is that when our philosophical premises are flawed to start with, our conclusions will also be flawed. You argue that there is life and then there is death; a good God and a bad God. You’re viewing the concept of God as something finite, something that you and I as human beings can measure. But to view death as the opposite of life is to ignore the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death isn’t the opposite of life. Death is merely the absence of life.”

The story goes on with their conversation focusing on issues of faith, life, and good and evil … and it ends with the student saying to his professor …

“Evil doesn’t exist sir; or at least it doesn’t exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. Evil, like darkness and cold, is a word we’ve created to describe the absence of God. God didn’t create evil. Evil is simply the result of what happens when we don’t have God's love in our hearts. It's like the cold that comes when there’s no heat … and it’s like the darkness that comes when there’s no light.

Gang, God created the world. And God knew that without His Light it would be dark. This is the truth Jesus Christ is revealing here in v. 12. And as Jesus was sharing this hard teaching, some people made the decision to invite His Light into their darkness, and other people made the decision to stay in the dark. And this is the way it has always been.

But how many of you know that Jesus Christ always speaks the Truth? And when Jesus speaks the Truth to us, even when it hurts, we’re drawn to Him and to the words He shares with us about Himself, about ourselves, and about the world we live in.

And this is why we need to serve Jesus Christ as our Lord, follow Jesus Christ as our shepherd, obey Jesus Christ as our King, sit at Jesus Christ’s feet as our Teacher, and embrace Jesus Christ as the Lover of our Souls. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-02-11T17:41:00.001-08:00

WHO IS 2ND STREET?

I love it when I'm asked to describe 2nd Street Community Church -- the flock I've been serving as lead pastor-teacher since July of 2006. Here's what I shared with them yesterday at the beginning of our worship services ... I think that my words describe pretty well who we are, what we're up to, and why we exist.

Welcome to 2nd Street Community Church. We’re a rag-tag band of followers of Jesus Christ who want to take off our masks and be real before God. We want to be a church where acceptance of hurting, disenfranchised, people – people who are in the margins of life – is the rule and not the acceptance to the rule.

Our MISSION STATEMENT says that we’re "spiritual seekers cooperating with God and one another to become devoted followers of Jesus Christ." We value LOVE, COMMUNITY, AUTHENTICITY, SEEKING, TRUTH, GROWING, and SERVING.

We’re not perfect people piously opening our arms to imperfect people. Rather, we’re people from all walks of life, from all kinds of backgrounds, with all kinds of baggage, who gather together here at the Armory each week – and in Community Groups throughout the week – to worship God, to learn from God, to be in God’s presence and to hear God’s voice, so that through surrender and sacrifice we can become less and less like the “old us” and be transformed more and more into the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the Lover of our Souls …

So that His THOUGHTS become our thoughts, so that His WORDS become our words, so that His ACTIONS become our actions. Because if we’re not being transformed into the family-likeness of Jesus Christ, no matter how badly we want to, we’ll never be able to live into and live out the will of God for our lives. Welcome ragamuffins.

Does this sound like a place where you might fit in? If so, come visit us. Our website and other contact information is found below. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+%+

Cell | 971.832.0010
Email | gregg.lamm@gmail.com
Web | www.2ndstreet.org

2008-01-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

CONFESSION AND FREEDOM

In JOHN 7:14-18 Jesus answers some objections and offers some practical teaching about Who He is, and what He’d come to do.

JOHN 7:14 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

14 But when it was now the midst of
the feast Jesus went up into the temple,
and began to teach.

v. 14 … the midst of the feast … The first time Jesus went to the temple as an adult (JOHN 2:13-16) He cleansed the temple and ran out all the people who turned it from a house of prayer into a den of thieves. And now, when Jesus returns to the temple, He comes to teach. And I see an important FAITH LESSON for us here …

FAITH LESSON …

Before you and I can hear and
receive Jesus’ TEACHING, and
begin to internalize and live
out Jesus’ teaching, we need
to invite Him to do some CLEANING
in our minds and in our hearts.

When our lives are cluttered with
unconfessed sin … when we’re
holding things back from God … and
when we live before Him as impostors,
we won’t be receptive to the teaching,
instruction, correction and training
Jesus has for us from His WORD.

And so every time we open up God’s WORD and ask God to teach us, it would be good for us to acknowledge the truth of what King David said in PSALM 66:18 and what he prayed in PSALM 139:23-24 …

PSALM 66:28; 139:23-24

18 If I had not confessed the sin in
my heart, my Lord would not have
listened. (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE)

23-24 GOD, look deep into my heart,
and see everything I am thinking.
Help me walk away from evil thoughts
and deeds, and lead me in the way
that time has proven true; Your path,
Your will. (PARAPHRASED)

When you and I choose to deny and ignore the sin in our lives, our fellowship with God is broken. Not because God gives up on us, but because God is serious about us living honest, confessional, holy lives before Him and one another. God knows that when we hide our sin, there are always painful consequences, both in our own lives, and in the lives of the people we’re closest to.

The pathway to the cleaning that needs to take place in our lives is walked on when we stop trying to hide our sins from God, and we confess them. And then, from that place of having been made clean by forgiveness and the receiving of God’s grace, we’re able to receive the teaching, the instruction, and the training God has for us.

If you’ve been part of 2nd Street for a while, then you know I love reading the sermons of the great 19th century American pastor-teacher-evangelist-author-missionary Dwight L. Moody … and you’ve heard me tell some of his stories. Well here’s another one …

ILLUSTRATION … A lady in the north
of England told Moody that every time
she tried to pray, she immediately
pictured five bottles of wine she’d
stolen several years before when she
was a housekeeper. And once the
picture of the five bottles of wine
was in her mind, she felt like her
prayers weren’t making it out of the
room. Moody told her, “You need to
go and make restitution, make amends.”

“But the person is dead,” she replied.

“Are there any heirs?” Moody asked.

“Yes … there’s a son.”

“Then go to the son and pay him back,”
counseled Moody.

And then the lady said, “I want to get things
right between me and God, but I can’t
confess my thievery. My reputation is at
stake.” And with that she left.

But she came back the next day and asked
Moody if it would be okay if she figured out
the price of the five bottles of wine and then
put that amount into the church offering.
“No,” Moody said, “God doesn’t want any
stolen money. The only way to repair the
break between you and God is to make
restitution.”

The lady wrestled with Moody’s counsel
for several days, but then finally traveled
out into the country, found the son, confessed,
and offered him a five-pound note for the
wine she’d stolen. He forgave her … and
said that she didn’t need to give him the
money. But after she’d finally persuaded
him to take it, she traveled back to town
with a joy and peace she hadn’t known for
years.

Gang, the unconfessed sins in our lives are the stumbling stones that keep tripping us up in our desire to move ahead in our faith. Let’s invite confession do the work of cleaning God wants to take place in our lives. God doesn’t want you and me to come to church and shout “Hallelujah” and sing intimate worship songs to Him while at the same time we’re trying to hide sin in our hearts.

Sin builds a wall between us and God. And we might be really well known, we might stand tall in the community, we might be actively involved in the church … our friends might think that everything is okay between us and God … but the real question is, HOW DO WE STAND IN THE SIGHT OF GOD? If there’s anything wrong in you life, make it right. Again, I love how King David talked about this in PSALM 32:2-3 …

PSALM 32:2-3 (NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)

2 Yes, what joy for those whose record
the LORD has cleared of sin, whose lives
are lived in complete honesty!
3 When I refused to confess my sin, I was
weak and miserable, and I groaned all
day long.

So before Jesus taught in the temple, He had to cleanse the temple. And now we see Him teaching. What areas of cleansing do you need to ask God to do in your life so you can become more receptive to His teaching? Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-01-11T14:35:00.001-08:00

CHOOSING LIFE ...

With the National Pro-Life Sunday
coming up on 20 January, I thought
that I'd post the words I shared on
the steps of the Oregon Capital building
one year ago at a state-wide rally.

Good afternoon. My name is Gregg Lamm and I’m a pastor in Newberg. I’ve been married for nearly 26 years to my precious bride Teresa, and am the father of three sons, Ryan, Jesse and Ian, as well as the father of one child who is living with Christ in heaven because of the self-centered choice my girlfriend and I made in October, 1976 to end our child’s life by abortion.

And so while I’m Pro-Life because I’m seeking to be a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, I’m also Pro-Life because of the brokenness the sin of abortion has caused in my own life, and in the lives of people I’ve shepherded as a pastor over the past 23 years.

In August 2004, Dr. Ken Wilson, the then President of Oregon Right-To-Life wrote the following words in a newsletter …

“Why is killing unborn children still legal?
Because we are failing. Protestant and Catholic
Christians have the power to save millions of
precious babies: We just don't."

So why don’t we stand? Maybe it’s because swimming up stream for thirty-four years has left us tired, and somewhat overwhelmed by the miles of moral and legislative reform yet to cover before our journey is over. Maybe it’s because other priorities of our country, which as Judge Robert Bork wrote, “is slouching toward Gomorrah” have distracted us, and at times even paralyzed us.

Archbishop Vlazny spoke of the legal and statistical realities of abortion in our nation … and challenged us to increase our efforts to stand for the rights of the unborn, to be the voice of those whose voices cannot be heard. As we close our time together today I would like to challenge us to …

Let God’s WORD and God’s Truth become in new ways the foundation of why we choose to stand up and let our voices be heard … and I challenge us to …
Let God’s WORD and God’s Truth be at the root of our convictions to consistently vote Pro-Life … and I challenge us to …
Let’s God’s WORD and God’s Truth be the source of our passion and our energy, the source of our priorities, and the source of the stewardship of our time, our gifts, and our resources.

WHY SHOULD WE VALUE ALL LIFE, BORN AND PRE-BORN? THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR, LISTEN TO AND LIVE INTO THE WORD OF THE LORD …

GENESIS 1:27 … So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

ISAIAH 64:8 … Yet, O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are the Potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

WHO IS THE CREATOR OF THE PRE-BORN? THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR, LISTEN TO AND LIVE INTO THE WORD OF THE LORD …

JOB 31:15 … Did not He who made me in the womb make everyone else as well? Did not the same God form us both within our mothers?

PSALM 139:13-16 … For You [oh God] created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.

HOW IS GOD CONCERNED WITH THE PRE-BORN? THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR, LISTEN TO AND LIVE INTO THE WORD OF THE LORD …

ISAIAH 49:1 … Listen to Me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth He has made mention of My name.

JEREMIAH 1:5 … [God says] Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you saw the light of day I had holy plans for you …

IS THERE HEALING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE HAD ABORTIONS, OR FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PARTIICIPATED IN PROVIDING THEM? THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR, LISTEN TO AND LIVE INTO THE WORD OF THE LORD …

JEREMIAH 31:15-17 … A voice was heard in Ramah of painful crying and deep sadness: Rachel crying for her children. She refused to be comforted, because her children are dead! But this is what the Lord says: “Cease your cries of mourning; wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have known will come to an end and there is hope for your future.”

ISAIAH 1:18 … [God says] No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. If your sins are blood-red, when you ask Me to forgive you, they'll become snow-white. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow … as white as wool.

Dr. Wilson went on to write in his August 2004 newsletter …

“If some Church leaders are unwilling to
stand for God's truth, God's people must stand
without them. It is never easy being a Nathan
the prophet, [or] a St. Francis of Assisi … and
yet sometimes [God calls us to] tell leaders
they're wrong. How many more million babies
must die before we courageously risk
all in battling this mortal sin?”

The time is now for us to arise, to pray, to give, and as Dr. Wilson said, “courageously risk all in battling this mortal sin” of abortion. But we must enter this next chapter of truth-speaking and aggressively peaceful advocacy with God’s WORD as our foundation, with the Spirit of Christ as our guide, and with our lives, our purposes, and our resources united with one another as we labor within the church, within the government, and within our culture … doing the work of speaking up and standing-in-the-gap for the Pre-Born.

Mother Teresa was right when she said that …

"The greatest destroyer of love and
peace is abortion, which is war against
the child … Any country that accepts
abortion is not teaching its people to
love, but to use any violence to get

what they want."

As we leave this place today, I invite us to let the words the Apostle Paul wrote to the followers of Christ living in Galatia to both ground us and guide us … and to be our encouragement and our equipping … Here is a paraphrase of Paul’s words …

GALATIANS 6:9 … Friends let's not allow our fatigue from doing what Christ has called us to … get us off track from being who we’re called to be, or slow us down from doing what we’re called to do. Because in the end, if we stay the course, if we don't give up or throw in our hand … at just the right time [according to how God keeps time], we will see the big picture of what God is up to, what God has invited us to partner with Him in – and the harvest will be astounding. (a paraphrase)

In ACTS 17:6 … the early followers of Jesus Christ were described as “the ones who were turning the world upside down.” And in ACTS 13:36, King David was described as a man “who served the purposes of God in his own generation.” Friends, may these be the words spoken of us today and in the days, weeks, months, and years to come … when describing our commitment to Pro-Life issues, and the methods we employ …

As you and I “serve the purposes of God in our generation” … in our culture, in our state, in our towns, in our churches, in our nation, in the world, and in the relationships we have with those God brings across our path, may God use us to bring Light into darkness, to bring healing into brokenness, and to bring God’s gift of reconciliation into that which has been torn asunder. And may we be known as those who are “turning the world upside down” for the sake of the Kingdom of God and God’s purposes. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2008-01-06T23:00:00.001-08:00

TWO WOLVES

There are two natures inside of all of us. One is pulling us toward SIN and SELF and is called our “flesh” or “sin nature” in The New Testament. And the other one is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit after we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ ... and in The New Testament it's called our “spirit” ... and it is pulling us toward HOLINESS and THE THINGS OF GOD.

There’s a famous old Cherokee story that illustrates this reality in a way we can all understand. Here’s how one woman wrote this story down …

When I was growing up in Oklahoma, one of my
closest friends, a girl named Billie, attended a
Cherokee Baptist Church.

Occasionally Billie and her family would take me
to church with them on Sunday mornings. The
services were in the Cherokee language, which I
didn’t understand, but Bible studies and Sunday
school classes were taught in English.

I remember being very impressed by a simple
parable told by the Sunday school teacher, an
elderly Cherokee man.

In the parable a young Cherokee man is brought
before the tribal elders, who are concerned about
his aggressive tendencies. One of the elders takes
the young man aside and tells him that his anger
is understandable, since all humans have two wolves
within them.

One wolf is good and peaceable, and the other is evil
and angry. And since one wolf will never completely
destroy the other one, they’re in constant battle
with one another.

The young man asks the elder “But in the end, which
wolf will win?”

And the elder replied, “That’s simple. The one you
feed the most.”

Our SIN NATURE and our SPIRIT – two wolves inside of us. Our SPIRIT is good and peaceable … and our SIN NATURE is evil and angry. Our SPIRIT is pulling us toward the things of God. And our SIN NATURE is pulling us toward the things of the world. And at the end of our lives, AND day-by-day, the wolf that will win the battle is the one we feed the most.

Focus on the things of this world, let the values of our culture shape your thinking, your priorities, your relationships, and your view of yourself and others … and you’ll be feeding the “SIN NATURE” wolf. And you’ll find yourself drifting further and further away from God, further and further away from people who are pursuing God, and further and further away from the values of the Kingdom of God.

But focus on the things of God, get into God’s WORD, spend time with people whose hearts and minds are heading in the same direction, pursue Christian spiritual disciplines, and you’ll be feeding your “SPIRIT” … and you’ll find your doubts, not just fading away, but being worked through with and much of the time resolved.

Because as we take on the character of Jesus Christ, God brings clarity, focus, and resolve … and the “measure of faith” Paul talks about in ROMANS 12:3 … that all followers of Jesus Christ are given by God when they first come into relationship with Him, will begin to grow, deepen, mature and take root in our hearts and minds.

There are two wolves inside of every one of us. Two natures competing for our attention and our allegiance. Which wolf will win this epic struggle? It's simple. The one we feed the most. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2007-12-29T00:55:00.001-08:00

A WILLIAM BOOTH QUOTE
AND RESPONSE ...

My friend Marvin sent me and a group of other pastors this William Booth quote tonight -- and below are some of my late-night thoughts about Booth's words ...

I consider that the chief dangers which
confront the coming century will be
religion without the Holy Ghost,
Christianity without Christ, forgiveness
without repentance, salvation without
regeneration, politics without God, and
heaven without hell. - William Booth,
founder of The Salvation Army

Since William Booth lived from 10 April, 1829 to 20 August, 1921, and I don't know the context or the date of this quote, I will dangerously assume that he was speaking of the 20th Century and not the 21st. But if he was speaking of the 20th Century, he was no doubt speaking of all the "decades to come after the new millennium of 1900", which would include 2007 and beyond. That said, here are a couple things I hear in Booth's words ...

chief dangers will always be part of life, whether history repeats itself or writes new chapters. But even when various civilizations around the world or around the corner are "slouching toward Gomorrah" (quoting Robert Bork's 1996 book of the same name, in which Bork was quoting with a twist a line from William Butler Yeat's poem "The Second Coming" in which he wrote, "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"), there are always signs of a remnant, post-exilic faith whose life and mission are not motivated by these chief dangers to cower, hide, and doom-speak.

And this my friends gives me great comfort and hope. The sound of hope is always louder than the sound of despair -- and the chief glories are always more majestic than the chief dangers, to those pressing into Jesus Christ and inviting the ears and the eyes of their hearts to find their rhythm, harmony, vision and focus in Him.

religion without the Holy Ghost will always both intrigue us and fail us. People want to believe that their beliefs have power -- and so when the focus of religion moves off the Holy Ghost, it most commonly comes to illicitly rest on the power of people and on the perceived authority of their doctrine, theology, and ideas. The mind always seeks to be exalted above the power of God's Holy Ghost, just as cancer always seeks to go deeper into the body.

And the result is always the same. Death. Power and love can only equally co-exist in the Holy Ghost -- for in humankind, and in our minds, they are always at odds. And so a move toward a religion without the Holy Ghost will always be rooted in a desire to be perceived as "lovers" of people, ideals, justice, and even morality; but in the end what will be exposed is an unmasked thirst for the power, influence, recognition and devotion that rightly belong to God.

Christianity without Christ has been the goal of countless Christian cults since even before the manger and the cross. What I've seen through the time-line of history is that most people don't usually try to construct a belief system called "Christianity without Christ". But what they try to do is to construct a belief system called "Christianity" but with the "different Jesus" Paul spoke of in his writings (cf., SECOND CORINTHIANS 11:4) ... which will ultimately be a "different gospel" (cf., GALATIANS 1:6) altogether.

To maintain the purity of Who Jesus Christ is we must live, breathe, and find our being in Jesus Christ. We must love to read and study the Gospels, not relegating it to little children, or to those "young in the faith". For the whole Bible only finds its meaning, purpose, construct and central message as we become passionate about the One who stepped out of heaven to step into our lives.

forgiveness without repentance is what Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" in his book "The Cost of Discipleship"; and it's what our flesh yearns for. In "The Screwtape Letters" C.S. Lewis wrote that the goal of Satan is to "distract us", so that "in the midst of a flood, we'll respond by picking up a fire extinguisher." (a paraphrased quote ... sorry Clive).

Forgiveness without repentance is only a perceived forgiveness, because there's no true victory without total surrender. For our churches to become places of "great grace" they must become places of "great confession, great repentance, and great surrender." And this movement toward authenticity, clean-hands, clean-hearts, and the beauty of holiness must begin with us as the shepherds of God's flocks. Again, C.S. Lewis writes, this time in his book "The Four Loves" ...

Those, like myself, whose imagination far exceeds
their obedience, are subject to a just penalty: We
easily imagine conditions far higher than we have
really reached. If we describe what we have
imagined, we may make others, and make ourselves
believe that we have really been there — and so
deceive both them and ourselves.

What Lewis describes is the fruit of forgiveness without repentance. And this is a place we must not go near, stand next to, and dwell in -- because to remain this shallow, this masked, and this rebellious will lead us in short order to become the very shepherds described in EZEKIEL 34.

salvation without regeneration, like forgiveness without repentance, is a conundrum of epic proportions. It simply cannot exist, anymore than a pig can fly, a carp can read Dr. Suess, or I can do math problems beyond what I learned in the third grade. But when we settle for the illusion of salvation without regeneration, we lie our way into death, both in the here and now and for eternity.

And just so I'm not misunderstood ... an inability to provide the goods on either side of salvation never falls on God. God is always willing, forever offering, eternally non-reticent about offering this beautiful gift to you and me. It's our stubbornness to sacrifice, our love of ego over the Imago Dei, and our choosing of pride over humility, that keeps us turning away from God's offering, and calling "an encounter with God" that scratches the surface "a life altering experience" and then pretending that piety is a garment we willingly wear.

But in the end nearly nobody falls for the hoax. Not the people who know us, not us ourselves, and certainly not God.

politics without God will ultimately unravel because the structure of civilizations and the moral fibers that weave together to build the woven structure politic cannot be rooted in the mortal-morality of a fallen, sinful world. It's what Jesus was talking about in MATTHEW 7:24-29 when He said ...

24 "These words I speak to you are not
incidental additions to your life, home-
owner improvements to your standard
of living. They are foundational words,
words to build a life on. If you work
these words into your life, you are like
a smart carpenter who built his house
on solid rock. 25 Rain poured down, the
river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing
moves that house. It was fixed to the rock.

26 But if you just us my words in Bible
studies and don't work them into your life,
you are like a stupid carpenter who built
his house on the sandy beach. 27 When a
storm rolled in and the waves came up, it
collapsed like a house of cards.

28 When Jesus concluded his address, the
crowd burst into applause. They had never
heard teaching like this. 29 It was apparent
that he was living everything he was saying
- quite a contrast to their religion teachers!
This was the best teaching they had ever
heard. (THE MESSAGE)

God simply asks us to invite Him to teach us how to live with one another in the world in ways that reflect the thoughts, the words, and the deeds of Jesus Christ. Is it hard? For sure. But it's easier than all the other ways the world has come up with. And so as pastor-teachers, and as the shepherds of God's flock called Northwest Yearly Meeting, let's join God in this way of taking on, and living into the Manifesto of Jesus Christ He invoked at the beginning of His ministry and that was recorded in LUKE 4:18-19 (cf., ISAIAH 61:1-2) ...

18 THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON
ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO
PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM
RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND
RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE
OPPRESSED, 19 TO PROCLAIM THE
FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.
(NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

heaven without hell ... Universalism seems like a good idea in much the same way that much of communism looked good on paper at the turn of the 20th century. But the folks in Northwest Yearly Meeting are not universalists, and to wander toward this theological precipice in the name of camaraderie, or when falsely motivated by a desire to be known for our tolerant love more than for our convictions, is a path we'll only follow at our own peril.

But what I've found through the years is that when I teach passionately about grace and the unconditional mercy of God, keeping the focus on heaven and not hell, 1) people who are seekers, 2) people who are young Christ-followers, and 3) people who are seasoned disciples of Jesus Christ, choose with ever-increasing measure to follow Him out of insatiable love, and not because they're simply trying harder, or gritting their religious teeth more fervently.

Universalism is a cop out. It's a slap in the face of Truth that violates Jesus' words in JOHN 3:16 while wearing an "all-embracing" grin. Phillip Gulley and Carlton Pearson's "Gospel of Inclusion" ... and a host of pastor-teachers, shepherds and leaders who were formerly orthodox in their beliefs about heaven and hell, but who have now taken a hard turn, are wrong.

Because in the end, we can't talk about heaven or hell without also talking about sin. To believe in heaven but not hell is to believe in the goodness of God, but not the justice of God, and it's to believe in humanity's original blessing while ignoring our original sin.

Marvin, thanks for this good William Booth posting tonight. It's been to think about these things as we come to the end of yet another year. Let's prove William Booth wrong by the way we live, by the way we teach, by the way we lead, by the way we shepherd, by the way we think, and by the way we speak. Godspeed and Good night to all. Happy New Year.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2007-12-25T21:41:00.001-08:00

THE CHRISTMAS STORY RE-TOLD ...
ADAPTED FROM LUKE 2 WITH HELP FROM GARRISON KEILLOR,
MARK TWAIN, MAX LUCADO, AND SUE BAILEY
2ND STREET COMMUNITY CHURCH | 23 DECEMBER 2007

I’d like to tell you a story this morning – it’s a story that takes place many centuries ago in the Holy Land. It’s a story I’m sure you’ve heard before – but this morning I invite you to hear it again. And as you listen to the old, to the familiar, to what you think you’re going to hear – I urge you to allow yourselves to be touched by the grace and truth that is found in this season of holy nights, good news and great joy.

In those days a man by the name of Caesar Augustus was pretty much in charge of everything that seemed to be of any importance. Caesar was only one of the titles Augustus bore. Others were imperator, pontifex maximus, princepus ultimus and so on.

But no matter by which name he was called – they all got across the point that he ruled Rome and virtually the whole world. And so it was, from this lofty position, that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Now this wasn’t really the whole world mind you; but it was the whole world Caesar Augustus knew about – and of course, like most of us, he knew far less than he thought he did.

Caesar Augustus believed he was Emperor of the whole world, but he had a lot to learn about geography because really, his kingdom was only one small corner of the globe. And so in the end, Caesar’s decree was pretty well ignored, in America for example … and in places like Lapland, Nova Scotia, and the Philippines. But in the Holy Land it was obeyed.

I guess it could have been done the other way around … with the government sending census takers door to door. But governments have always liked to see people march to their orders, follow their instructions, and stand in their lines, and Caesar Augustus’ government was no different. And so on camels, on carts, on donkeys and on foot, everyone traveled to their hometown to be counted.

Among the Jews traveling to their birthplaces were Joseph and the young woman he was engaged to. Her name was Mary, and she was expecting her first child at any time. A weary-from-walking carpenter … and a tired-from-traveling, pregnant young woman. But this was no ordinary couple – and neither was their baby ordinary … not by any stretch of the imagination.

You see, a few months before, an angel by the name of Gabriel (“Gabe” to his friends) appeared to Mary and told her of the mystery that was to come upon her. And in fact, before he left, the last words he spoke to Mary were, “You mustn’t be afraid.” And if that wasn’t the understatement of all time, I don’t know what could top it.

And what about Joseph? I mean if your girlfriend had told you the story Mary must have told him, would you have believed her? Can you imagine the conversation they must have had? “Okay, Mary, let me get this straight … you’re a virgin … and … you’re pregnant. Come on, who do you think you’re talking to here? I wasn’t born yesterday. Give me a break!”

And so when you really think about it, you can hardly blame Joseph for considering breaking off their engagement when he discovered that Mary was indeed pregnant, through no fault or passion of her own. Nevertheless, when God explained it all to him in a dream, he took it like a man who knew God and believed God’s voice, and all was forgiven.

And so this very pregnant young girl and her wood-working fiancé came down from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, to Judea, about 85 miles to the south, and into Bethlehem, the city of David. And while they were there, standing in line, filling out forms and trying to figure out if they had enough money left to get supper, the time came for Mary to give birth to her child.

The donkey ride probably got things going. I mean, ladies, imagine riding a donkey for 85 miles in your third trimester! Today we use Italian food and castor oil to nudge nature along – but how about riding a mule from Newberg to Cottage Grove! Ya – I’d think that would probably do the trick.

Now I don’t want you to think Joseph was an insensitive slouch. When they first arrived in town, he tried to get a hotel room. He really had, but when he went up to the front door of the only one with it’s “vacancy” light still on, the clerk said all the rooms were booked – and that he just forgot to turn out the light.

And when Joseph tried explaining to him that Mary was about to have a baby, the clerk said, “Don’t tell me about your problems, I just work here.” And so they ended up in a stable. Now stables don’t usually house people – in the same way that houses don’t usually stable animals. So of course there were animals in the stable; some donkeys, a few horses and probably some dairy cows too.

Now in all the manger artwork I’ve ever seen the stable is pictured as being very clean and filled with sweet-smelling straw. And I certainly hope that it was like all the little crèche scenes we see on people’s mantles – although I seriously doubt that it was. And it was there, where Mary gave birth to her first-born son and laid him in a manger.

An infant in a feed trough – God as a baby. A lowlier place couldn’t possibly have existed. Are you picturing the scene? A damp, smelly grotto, a baby resting quietly, a couple of new parents – wiped out from the long trip, the labor, and the delivery. I guess that if anyone is dozing off now it’s probably Joseph. He can’t remember the last time he sat down. And now that Mary and their new son are comfortable, he leans against the rock wall of the stable and feels his eyes grow heavy. He still hasn’t figured it all out. The mystery of it all, I mean.

A father … but not married? A virgin … yet a mother? A baby son … yet God? His head is swimming with questions that he doesn’t have the energy to wrestle with. What’s important in his mind now is that the baby is fine, and that Mary is safe. And so he curls up next to them and rubs and soothes Mary’s weary body and listens to the cooing and the yawning of his newborn son. And then finally, as sleep comes near, he remembers the name the angel told him to give his son … and he looks at his little boy and whispers, “We’ll call you ‘Jesus.’”

But while Joseph nods off, Mary’s quite awake. My, she looks so young! Fourteen or fifteen tops. Her head rests on the soft leather of Joseph’s saddle and most of the pain of Jesus’ delivery is now eclipsed by amazement. She looks down to her breast and into His face. Her son. Her LORD.

And at that exact moment in history, the person who best understands who God is and what He’s up to is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. Imagine that. Mary can’t take her eyes off of Jesus. She remembers the words of the angel: “His kingdom will never end.” She thinks about the days to come and quietly wonders to herself …

“Will we ever count the stars together … and succeed? Someday, will His brothers and sisters understand who He is? Will He do well in school? Someday, will I accidentally call Him ‘Father’? Will He ever wake up in the middle of the night and be afraid?”

So many questions – so few answers. Only a peace that passes understanding – only a quiet pondering of the greatest event of all time – the miracle she holds in her arms.

Such tiny hands: to someday touch a leper’s wounds, to wipe a widow’s tear, to bear a Roman spike – but tonight they’re clutched in an infant’s fist. Such tiny eyes: to someday see our pain, our selfishness, and our fears – but tonight they’re closed in tranquil sleep. A tiny mouth: to someday define grace, speak love, and whisper hope – but tonight it’s still and quiet. Such tiny feet: to someday walk painful, dusty, difficult steps – but tonight they’re curled up … soft and pink.

As Mary looks at her little boy she’s hit by the fact that He really looks like anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, even though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. He’s absolutely dependent upon her for His well-being. Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a girl, in the presence of carpenter. She touches His face and whispers, “How long was your journey?” And then they both fall asleep.

Now there were shepherds living in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Actually they were probably lying around a campfire because sheep aren’t too hard to watch when they’re sleeping. And the shepherds were smoking pipes and telling jokes and passing around a wineskin. They were kind of a motley bunch, these shepherds. I mean, back then, it wasn’t a line of work that educated people went into. In other words, shepherds weren’t really looked on very highly by other people.

They weren’t considered to be high-class citizens … because, let’s face it, sheep aren’t high-class animals. From a distance they might be, but not when you get up close to them. Sheep are fine as long as they’re doing what they want to do. But as soon as you try to make a sheep do what you want it to do, I tell you … all the high-class people get out of the profession at that point. And the only people left to be shepherds are the folks who don’t have anything else.

We read in The Gospel of Luke – the 2nd chapter – that as the shepherds were lying there, an angel of the LORD appeared to them, and the glory of the LORD shone around them. Luke actually writes “And lo, an angel of the LORD appeared to the shepherds.” When I was a kid, I thought that was “Lo” was the angel’s name … and so until I was 12 years old or so, I always thought angels were Chinese.

But these shepherds hadn’t ever seen anybody from China … and they probably hadn’t seen an angel before either … and so I doubt that they got the two mixed up. But when they saw the angels, Luke tells us that they were terrified. And frankly, I don’t blame them a bit. And so when the angels appeared, they put their arms over their heads and hugged the ground – they literally pressed their faces into the ground.

You see they were kind of shy people, these shepherds. A couple of them hid their wineskins, thinking that maybe God had come to punish them for drinking too much. And they lay there whimpering and crying, saying “No, please … don’t.” And so when the angel said, “Do not be afraid”, the words went right over their heads because they’d never looked at an angel before – they’ve never heard an angel’s voice before – they’d never smelled an angel before.

And the angel was sort of like a human, but not exactly. And the one that was talking … his voice was strange – kind of distant and echoey. And the smell that the angel gave off! … well, it was a smell of such purity that it almost hurt their noses. And then, right in the midst of their terror, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, the angel said these words …

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid. I’m here to tell you the best news you or anyone ever born has ever heard. In Bethlehem, the town of David, your long-awaited-for Messiah has finally left heaven and come to earth. And He hasn’t come for just a few people. No, in fact, far from it.

God has come for everyone … and I’m inviting you to have front row seats. Emmanuel, God with us, has shown up on earth just like the rest of you did … as a baby. And here’s how you’ll know that you’ve found the right baby. Go to Bethlehem and you’ll find Him waiting for you, wrapped in cloths and lying peacefully in a manger.

And then Luke tells us that suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to everyone.” A whole angel band – singing and dancing in the night sky. It was kind of like a celestial Lawrence Welk Concert – but without a stage – if you can only imagine such a terrifyingly wondrous thing. And after two or three numbers -- and then a reprise of the original theme – they left. Not one by one, but all at once. One second they were there and then the next they were just gone.

And after they’d vanished, some of the shepherds weren’t too sure if it had been a dream – or maybe a nightmare. But none of them were going to take any chances. And so they rushed into Bethlehem to see what it was that the angels were talking about. The angels told them “to go into the city”, and so they “went into the city.” Like Joseph and Mary before them, they heard and they obeyed … it was as simple as that.

And as they made their way toward the city, they followed a star. Like most stars, it was high in the sky, so it only pointed them in the general direction. In other words, it wasn’t too useful in helping them find one baby, in one stable, in one section of town. A street map would have been much more helpful than a star, but the angels didn’t give them a street map … only a command. And so when they got to Bethlehem they still had to look around for a little while.

Some of the shepherds believed what they’d been told … and some other ones weren’t quite so sure. And so they’d stop towns people while going through the streets – and they’d tap them on the shoulder and ask, “Hey, excuse me, but you didn’t happen to see a heavenly host singing and dancing up in the sky, kind of off to the south from here … say … about 40 minutes ago, did you?”

And the person would say, “A heavenly what?” And then the doubting shepherds would reply, “Oh never mind.” And then at least one of them was heard to have said, “You know Bob, we were drinking a lot. I emptied half that wineskin myself.”

But finally they found the stable. And they walked in and there was Mary and Joseph … and there was the baby-God wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger – just as they’d been told. And instantly, they all believed. They all believed instantly. They didn’t have to ask a whole lot of questions. They just knew that everything the angels had said was true. And they tiptoed out after worshiping the child. And from that night on, they were never the same people again.

Sure, they went back to shepherding, but they were never the same again. They were filled with joy and happiness the rest of their lives. Not that it made shepherding any easier, or that it made the sheep any easier to handle. Sheep were sheep. And they still got angry some times … and at other times they still got sad. But life was never the same again for them. There was always a light in their hearts and it was never pitch-dark for them again – for as long as they lived.

There were other things that happened too. Some time later three wise men came from a large Eastern University. There was an Assistant Wiseman and an Associate Wiseman, and there was the Chairman of the Wisdom Department. And they came bringing gifts … and they worshiped Jesus. And like the shepherds before them, they believed from the very first moment they saw Jesus.

Even though worshiping wasn’t exactly the custom among scholars at the time, they bowed to Him and recognized Him as their God and as their King. They believed instantly – letting understanding come out of their faith instead of waiting for faith to come out of understanding. They believed instantly. And so did the innkeeper … in a way. At least, he believed that an event happened that had great publicity value for Bethlehem.

And so he fired the clerk who’d sent Joseph and Mary away. And he sent a message to Joseph that a mistake had been made at the reservation desk – that they did have a room for them, and that they were welcome to come back and spend the whole weekend at no charge. And he made plans to change the name of his hotel to THE MESSIAH INN, and to raise his prices – and he would put up a plaque in the room where Jesus had slept which would simply say, “HE SLEPT HERE”.

He also planned to put a gift-shop in the lobby where he could sell holy-nativity-type-items. In fact, he’d already placed a large order for hand-carved sheep and mangers when word came back to him that Joseph and Marry had already left.

For you see, the angel had come back – maybe it was Gabriel again – we really don’t know. But he told Joseph and Mary that their lives were in danger and that King Herod would be coming after them. And so they left. The stable and the manger were empty. And when the soldiers arrived, all they found was a bunch of hungry animals standing around. And outside on the street a crowd of people gathered … people coming to see the miracle that they’d heard about from the shepherds … but HE was gone.

And if they were to find this child, this gift from the Heavenly Father, the Messiah, they’d have to find Him somewhere else, or in some other way.

I guess, when you come right down to it, the shepherds were the lucky ones … and the wise men … because they saw it all. They were there. It all happened to them. They didn’t have to be told about it second-hand. They didn’t have to sit down and study it and try to figure it all out. It was just given to them as a gift. They looked into the eyes of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, and because of what they saw … and because of what they discovered … and because of what they believed … they were never the same.

I know it’s an old story. I know it’s a familiar story. But I truly hope that this morning we’ve heard it again, like the first time. And that in our listening … and that in our embracing of truth we might come to know the One Who’s birth we celebrate.

Merry Christmas and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

2007-12-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS 2007

One of the things I love about Christmas is gathering together into warm spaces with God and with people I love and have genuine relationships and connections with. These gatherings happen at home, at church, at special Christmas programs, and in ways unplanned and serendipitous. I love how God gives us invitations into His presence, opportunities to hear His voice, chances to increase our intimacy with Him and obedience to Him.

It’s always seems odd to hear people pray, “Oh God, please be here with us.” Like God could stay away from the people He loves (which includes all of us). What we need to pray is, “Oh God, help me be here with You. I don’t want to let the burdens and the distractions of my life shift my focus off of You and onto me. Help me center my heart, my mind, my thoughts, my emotions, and my will, onto You … so that my awareness of Your presence, and my sensitivity to Your voice and Your leadings in my life will increase and not diminish.”

As the shepherd of the flock called 2nd Street Community Church, it's my prayer that we'd give one another, and God, the gift of our presence … p.r.e.s.e.n.c.e.

The Christmas story begins in LUKE 2 ... "And it came to pass …"

That’s one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. Whatever we're feeling, whatever we're going through, it will come to pass. When Jesus came to earth, the world had been waiting for and looking for God’s Messiah for centuries. And then He appeared. And from that moment on, everything before Jesus was born is referred to as BC and everything that’s happened since Jesus was born is referred to as AD.

Jesus is the person Who’s very existence cut all of time in two. Maybe you saw the cartoon called "Bizarro" in the Friday, 14 December 2007 edition of The Oregonian newspaper. A teacher is standing at the front of a school auditorium stage and announces, “And now, we present this year’s sanitized, politically correct, holiday play, ‘Mary And The Magic Baby’”.

Gang, I'm so glad we don't have to talk about Jesus that way. Jesus isn’t just a fable. Jesus isn’t just a charming myth. Jesus is God’s Son, Emmanuel, God With Us. Jesus, is the One The Old Testament prophet Isaiah named “The Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Holy One.” (ISAIAH 9:6)

Jesus Christ is the One we long to press into. Jesus Christ is the One Who alone, can change the course of our lives and give us beauty for ashes, joy for sorrow, healing for pain, and hope for despair (cf., ISAIAH 61:3). Let’s open the eyes of our hearts up to Him so that we’re able to say …

“I was discouraged. But then it came to pass, that the hope of Jesus Christ met me and I was restored.” “I was filled with doubt. But then it came to pass that the story of Jesus Christ connected with me, and I became less bewildered, and a lot more amazed.” “I was anxious and worried. But then it came to pass, that the peace of Jesus entered me, and helped me become centered and grounded.”

So let’s offer God the gift of our presence … p.r.e.s.e.n.c.e. And let's invite Him to bring to pass His plans and His purposes in our lives. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg